


First Days In India 



ARTHUR CLI 



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Book 



Copyright ]^". 



GOPnaGirr deposit. 




MRS. PARKER, 

FOR FIFTY-ONE YEARS (1910) A MISSIONARY IN INDIA, AND ACTIVELY 

AT WORK WITH FEW SIGNS OF FEEBLENESS AND NONE 

OF CHILDISHNESS. 



FIRST DAYS IN 
INDIA 



By 
Arthur Clinton Boggess, Ph. D. 

Professor of History and Political Economy in Reid 
Christian College, Lucknow, India 



^ 



Cincinnati: Jennings and Graham 
New York : Eaton and Mains 



<: 



Copyright, 1912, by 
Jennings and Graham. 



£CI.A31[)997 



CONTENTS 



Chapter 



Page 



I. A Mela Day, - - - - - 9 

II. A MuHARRAM Day, - - - 24 

III. A Day in the Streets, - - - 42 

IV. A Day in the Bazar, - - 60 
V. A Day in the Country, - - 73 

VI. A Day with My Students, - 85 

VII. A Day at the North India Con- 
ference, - - - _ _ 105 

VIII. Three Days of Travel in the 

Himalayas, - - - - 118 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Mrs. Parker, - - - - Frontispiece 

The Historic Residency, - - - - 11 

The Lumbering Ox-Cart, - - - 15 

The Front View of the Great Imambara, 27 

Interior of the Great Imambara, - - 31 

The Palace of Lights, _ _ _ 35 

The Bihishti Comes Along, - - - 45 

Musical Instruments Used at Himalayan 

Weddings, _ . _ _ 45 

"I Saw a Man Trying to Split a Rock 

With a Shirt." — Mark Twain. - 53 

Among Tenant Farmers, - - - 53 

Reid Christian College, - - - 87 

Students in Chapel, _ _ _ _ 87 

Rev. J. R. Chitamber, Principal of Our 

High School, - - - - 95 

Christian High School Seniors, - - 95 

5 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Mission School Boys in Almora, - - 99 

Picnic Group of Missionaries at Almora, 99 

Epworth, Almora, _ _ - _ 107 

The Deodars, Almora, _ _ _ - 107 

Railway Station, - - - - - 121 

At 11:30 a.m. We Reached Kathgodam, 121 

BojH Coolies, ------ 129 

"The Plowman Homeward Plods His 

Weary Way." — Gray. - - 129 

Plowing a Terraced Mountain Side, - 143 

Harrowing a Terrace, - - - 143 

Hindu Temple near Almora, - - - 149 

Suspension Bridge, - - - - 149 

A Century Plant, Almora, - - - 153 

The Business Section of Almora, - 157 



PREFACE 

Although I came to India determined to 
be silent until I had spent some years in 
the country, I find myself deliberately 
breaking my silence after less than eight 
months of residence. My reason for writ- 
ing at this time is that several Americans 
who have lived for many years in India 
have told me that no one else is so well 
able to appreciate the features of Indian 
daily life that will be of interest to those in 
other lands as is the new arrival. The 
reasons for this truth are apparent. 

I have written of the commonest of 
commonplaces. A reader who has an 
active interest in people and who has an 
imagination sufficiently strong to vitalize 
the descriptions will probably be interested 
in the details of Indian life. 

Although no didactic purpose has 
prompted the writing of the following 
pages, I believe that it will be apparent 
to the thoughtful Christian reader that 

7 



PREFACE 

the general acceptance of Christianity by 
India would do much to lessen the pathos 
and tragedy of Indian life. Much, indeed, 
of India's misery results from child mar- 
riage, the caste system, the pardah system, 
plural marriage, non-remarriage of widows, 
dense illiteracy, and the absence of any 
satisfactory mediator between man and 
God. Christianity would remove most, 
and mitigate all, of these evils. It has 
done so where it has been accepted. 

What I have written is absolutely au- 
thoritative in the sense that I have de- 
scribed nothing that I have not myself 
seen. 

Arthur Clinton Boggess. 

Almora, India, 
May 24, 191L 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

A MELA DAY 

I ARRIVED In India on the thirtieth of Sep- 
tember, 1910, and reached Lucknow, which 
was to be my home, the next day. A very 
few weeks after my arrival there was an 
ecHpse of the moon, and as the Hindus 
beheve that the moon is much disturbed 
by an ecUpse and that some evil might be- 
fall their pregnant women if the gods were 
not propitiated, there must perforce be a 
mela. A mela is defined in the Royal 
Dictionary (Hindustani-English) as a con- 
course of people for religious or com- 
mercial purposes, and the aptness of the 
definition will presently become apparent. 
This was to be a bathing mela. It was 
to be held at the iron bridge which spans 
the Gumti River at Daliganj, near the 
ruins of the historic Residency. Never 

9 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

having seen a mela, and being inclined to 
learn all that I could of Indian life, I re- 
solved to visit this gathering, especially as 
it was held within a mile of my residence. 

The mela day dawned perfectly clear, 
but I found out later that this fact is not 
often referred to in this part of India at 
this time of year, because November may 
have thirty perfectly clear days and Oc- 
tober may have almost as many — some- 
times even more. Nevertheless I reveled 
in the beauty of the day. Quite early in 
the morning, with a companion or two, I 
set out in the direction of the iron bridge. 
As soon as I reached the main road which 
runs past Balrampur Hospital and the 
Residency I found it thronged with a 
motley crowd. A friend who lived near 
this highway told me that people had 
commenced passing his house before day- 
light. The stream was to continue until 
nearly noon, soon after which the backward 
stream began. 

Two of the many interesting things to 
observe in this thronging mass of humanity 
were the means of transportation and the 
10 



A MELA DAY 

costumes. Most of the people traveled on 
foot. Many a mother, and more rarely a 
father, trudged along with a baby held 
astride of her hip — the common way of 
carrying babies in this country. A few 
fathers had taken their tired children of 
from two to five years of age on their 
shoulders, their backs, or astride of their 
necks, and were thus giving the little ones 
a needed rest. Blind persons, who are 
painfully common, were led by relatives or 
friends. One of the most picturesque of 
the several varieties of vehicles was the 
lumbering ox-cart. These carts have enor- 
mous wooden wheels which are surmounted 
by a wooden, railed frame work, also of 
ample proportions. Within the body of 
the vehicle was food for man and beast, 
sometimes bedding, which would indicate a 
journey of more than one day's duration, 
and a varying number of men, women, and 
children. Another very common vehicle 
was the ekka, a kind of light, two-wheeled 
cart, without any bed, but with a platform 
and a sort of roof upheld by four corner 
posts. The ekka is the vehicle most used 

13 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

in Lucknow for the transportation of per- 
sons from place to place. A third vehicle 
was the gari. This is a four-wheeled, closed 
carriage, with two seats facing each other, 
and so strongly built that its top is used 
for the conveying of baggage. This ve- 
hicle is commonly used by Europeans and 
Indians of the upper class. Some of the 
pardah (secluded) women who came to the 
mela came in garis. Ekkas are sometimes 
used by pardah women, in which case the 
frame that supports the top is enveloped 
in cloth. A few wealthy Hindus came in 
phaeton garis — carriages with a top some- 
what like that of an American carriage, 
and which are really very good vehicles, 
comparing favorably with those of Europe. 
One man arrived on a camel, and reminded 
one of a wise man of the East. A few came 
on horses or ponies. 

Costumes were varied, but the multi- 
tude was in holiday attire. Jewelry was 
much in evidence. It was not rare to see a 
barefooted woman trudging along with at 
least half-a-dozen anklets on each ankle, 
rings on several of her toes, many brace- 

14 



A MELA DAY 

lets on each arm, one or more rings or 
pendants in each ear, her fingers fairly 
loaded with rings, and so large a ring in 
her nose that when she ate, her food was 
passed through the ring. The jewelry 
ranged in material all the way from cheap, 
colored glass to real silver and gold, ac- 
cording to the wealth of the wearer. In- 
dians are afraid of the banking system, and 
they put any money they save into jewelry 
and then either pawn or sell it, as occasion 
may require. The women in many cases 
wore brightly-colored clothing. Fine silk 
was by no means lacking. As the greater 
part of the crowd was more ignorant than 
wealthy, much of the dressing was not in 
good taste, as far as the harmony of colors 
is concerned, but there were notable ex- 
ceptions to this rule, and it is only fair to 
say that educated Indian women frequently 
dress in excellent taste. An Indian woman's 
holiday costume lends itself to exquisite 
draping. 

Beggars are always with us in India. 
As there is almost no organized system of 
poor relief, many of the beggars are genuine 
2 17 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

paupers; but I saw a most conspicuous 
case of imposture as I went to the mela. 
Some days before I had passed on the 
street a man who groaned, groveled in the 
dust, foamed at the mouth, and displayed 
on one of his bare legs a hideous sore. It 
seemed to me that he rather overdid his 
attempt to impress passersby with his 
misery. One evening, when it was almost 
dark, I came out from behind a high wall 
near his favorite begging place just in time 
to see him get up from the ground, look 
cautiously around, quickly wrap his loose 
clothing about him, and walk briskly away 
into the darkness. This same man lay by 
the side of the road on the mela day. 
His huge sore was in the same condition 
as it had been some days before. It was 
noteworthy that the swarming flies were 
not attracted by it. Some time later I 
again came upon this fellow in the early 
morning. He was just making up his sore 
preparatory to a begging crusade. A wise 
American, who has lived many years in 
India, says that he has several times of- 
fered beggars a rupee {?>3}4 cents) if they 
18 



A MELA DAY 

would unwrap their sores and let him see 
them. Another person has offered to take 
afflicted ones to the hospital. Neither 
class of offers has been accepted. 

Several ''holy men" came to the mela. 
They are recognized by their long, un- 
combed hair, their scanty and ragged and 
dirty clothing, and often by a covering of 
ashes. Hindus believe them to be so holy 
that they have no thought for material 
things. It seems to an observer that it 
must take some thought to be consistently 
dirty and ragged. Educated Hindus ac- 
knowledge that while some '*holy men" 
are sincere, many are merely insuperably 
lazy. 

Upon nearing the mela ground, which 
was at a point where five roads met, we 
saw that each road was thronged with 
people. One road, leading from a crowded 
part of the city, lay below the one on 
which we traveled, so that we got a good 
view of it for a considerable distance. Here 
one could see literally thousands of people 
coming to the mela. 

A mela is a concourse of people for 
19 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

religious or commercial purposes, and the 
commercial feature of the gathering be- 
came apparent upon reaching the grounds. 
The road was lined on each side with booths 
or places on the ground which served as 
such. Here one found a lavish display of 
staple vegetables. There were great heaps 
of radishes, enormous mounds of popped 
rice, piles of dot (a common pulse), loads 
of sugar cane, various kinds of mithai 
(Indian candy), and, in general, whatever 
Indians delight in for the satisfaction of 
the inner man. Sugar cane is chewed in 
its raw state by the Indians. Bands of 
laborers can be seen going to their work 
each with a stalk of cane in his hand to serve 
as his lunch, and many times one sees 
them eating as they go. Mithia shops are 
a perfect marvel of dirt. Flies swarm over 
the confectioner's stock in trade, and clouds 
of dust settle on it. A dealer is quite as 
likely to be in the blazing sun with ab- 
solutely no protection from flies, insects, 
and dirt as anywhere else. In addition to 
eatables, there were also stocks of cutlery, 
pictures, gods, jewelry, books, boots and 
20 



A MELA DAY 

shoes, and various other articles such as 
could be easily transported. One wonders 
why gods should be so ugly as most of 
these were. Books were chiefly in Urdu or 
Hindi — the prevailing languages here. 

Amusements were provided in the shape 
of a Ferris wheel and a number of merry- 
go-rounds. Both were extremely crude 
and were propelled by human power. Their 
crudity did not lessen their popularity. 
The Ferris wheel looked positively danger- 
ous, but no accident happened. 

Missionaries took advantage of the 
mela to sell portions of the Gospel and to 
distribute tracts. There was a good de- 
mand for portions of the Gospel. This 
mela, although its features were typical, 
was really a very small one. At the great 
melas Christian workers congregate in con- 
siderable numbers and both preach and 
distribute Christian literature. At this 
mela the work was done by Indian young 
women from the Isabella Thoburn College, 
accompanied by their teachers. 

There is a Hindu bathing place on each 
21 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

side of the Gumti River near the iron bridge. 
The bathing was really the chief feature of 
the mela. Men, women, and children 
bathe together. It might be supposed that 
such a proceeding would be extremely im- 
modest. I had expected that it would be 
so, but in reality it was not. The bathers 
went into the water with about as much 
clothing as an Atlantic City group of bath- 
ers. Although clothing was changed in the 
open on the river bank, so deftly was the 
dry clothing used as a shield while the wet 
clothing was being removed that the ab- 
sence of a dressing room was not felt. The 
loose manner in which Indians — both men 
and women — wear their clothing lends it- 
self to just such an occasion as was here 
presented. If there was anything shocking 
in the bathing it was the internal applica- 
tion of the water. When the stream was 
crowded with bathers, the men and women 
washed their teeth and drank the filthy 
water. On at least one occasion the out- 
break of a frightful pestilence was traced 
to precisely this cause. One shudders at 
22 



A MELA DAY 

the practice when he thinks of the number 
and variety of diseases that are to be found 
In India. 

An Indian mela presents a good oppor- 
tunity for character study. 



23 



A MUHARRAM DAY 

Muharram is the first month of the Mo- 
hammedan year, and during this month the 
faithful commemorate the death of Husain, 
the son of AH. That is, the faithful Shias 
so commemorate, because the Sunnis, who 
deny the right of Husain to be regarded 
as the successor of Mohammed, hate the 
Shias quite as cordially as both hate the 
Christians. Muharram came in January 
of 1911, and it will come again in December 
of the same year. The attendant celebra- 
tions by the Mohammedans are the most 
interesting of the periodic Mohammedan 
demonstrations. For several days the cele- 
bration lasts, but all of its typical elements 
can be seen in an evening and a forenoon. 
One evening two of my colleagues and 
myself set out on a tour of investigation. 
We knew that the Muharram celebration 
had begun. We also knew that it was the 
custom to announce in the daily paper of 
24 



A MUHARRAM DAY 

Lucknow that a certain evening would be 
especially reserved for Europeans. No 
such notice had yet appeared, and as we 
feared that it might not be issued we ceased 
to wait for it. Setting out from my resi- 
dence we walked past the city clay works 
and the police hospital to near the Dali- 
ganj iron bridge, where we turned to the 
left and made our way along the river road 
towards the Great Imambara. After going 
through the railroad viaduct we found 
many Indian guards in uniform stationed 
along the road, which was now crowded 
with a motley assortment of Indians. The 
regular police force of the city had been 
supplemented by police from the outlying 
places because of the danger of riots. There 
is danger of an outbreak between Shias and 
Sunnis — antagonistic Mohammedan sects — 
and between Mohammedans and Hindus. 
Near the great Imambara the throng of 
persons and vehicles was so dense that we 
could make our way but slowly, notwith- 
standing the extreme readiness of Indians 
to open a way for us. Finally we stood 
before the immense structure. 
25 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

An imambara Is a building in which the 
festival of the Muharram is celebrated. 
The Great Imambara of Lucknow is by 
far the largest structure of its kind in the 
city. It is in a complex of buildings com- 
prising a mosque, which is closed to all 
but Mohammedans; a great building used 
as a tomb, and an extensive series of cells 
that were built for the use of pilgrims. 
Everything Is constructed on an immense 
scale. The structure was erected during a 
great famine in order to serve as a relief 
work for the unemployed. Its wealthy 
builder left so generous an endowment 
that the place can be kept in good repair. 

When one turns from the road to enter 
the imambara grounds he passes through 
one of two great archways placed side by 
side. Passing through he finds himself in 
a large, rectangular courtyard with pil- 
grims' cells, arranged In two stories, on 
each of the four sides, their continuity 
being Interrupted only by the two arches 
spoken of above and a single similar arch 
piercing the tiers of cells directly across the 
quadrangle from these two. The structure 
26 




THE FRONT VIEW OF THE GREAT IMAMBARA. LUCKNOW. 




THE GREAT IMAMBARA. 



A MUHARRAM DAY 

is profusely adorned with the dome-Hke 
towers so characteristic of Moslem archi- 
tecture. The passage under the arch which 
pierces the second row of pilgrims' cells 
parallel to the road leads to a second court- 
yard. To the right of this courtyard 
stands the mosque, reached by a wide, ex- 
tended flight of stone steps and enclosed 
by a fence of iron pickets. To the left are 
more pilgrims' cells and the ruins of what 
appears to have been an extensive bath 
house. On the fourth side, and directly 
in front of the entrance, lies the great 
building which serves as the tomb of the 
builders. 

Our progress through the courtyards 
was slow. Part of our slowness was due 
to the throng and part was due to a desire 
to observe the novel surroundings. The 
whole structure, from the outer gateway 
to the tomb, was ablaze with lights. The 
effect was the same as would be secured 
by a multitude of electric lights, but it was 
a marvel to see such an effect produced by 
such means as were used. Little glass 
cups, with a little oil, and the rudest string 
29 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

wicks, took the place of electric bulbs. 
The roadway was lined with wooden frames, 
upon which these lights were held in place 
by being put on a little piece of mud; and 
upon the face of the lofty gateways frames 
of bamboo had been erected and the lights 
were held In place by strings or withes. 
In some parts of the buildings metal holders 
had been built into the masonry. Each 
of the thousands of lights had to be lighted 
by hand. The effect was very pleasing, 
but the labor involved must have been 
great. 

It may be noted here that the pilgrims* 
cells are not used as such. The Govern- 
ment has forbidden it — for sanitary reasons. 

Crossing the second courtyard, and 
ascending a flight of stone steps, we en- 
tered the tomb. Now, many an Indian 
tomb closely resembles a palace, only a 
very small part of the building being used 
for burial purposes. This building had an 
enormous central chamber, wide, enclosed 
galleries on each side, and a large room at 
each end. No wood was used in building. 
The walls of masonry are eighteen feet thick, 
30 



A MUHARRAM DAY 

and they support the largest vault of 
masonry in the world as a roof. In the 
interior room were two tombs surrounded 
by railings, some large chandeliers and 
candelabra of glass, and a few tazias. A 
tazia is a conventional representation of 
the tomb of Husain. Tazias are always 
gay with color. They range in size from 
almost infinitely small to elaborate struc- 
tures fifteen feet in height, and in value from 
very cheap tinsel ones to those in which 
real gold and silver leaf plays a conspicuous 
part. For many days preceding the Mu- 
harram celebration tazias were being car- 
ried from the homes of the faithful to the 
various mosques and imambaras of the 
city. We shall presently see what becomes 
of them. In the outer side gallery was a 
silver pulpit from which the Koran was 
read upon some occasions. The other 
gallery was almost unfurnished. The two 
end rooms had been used by the builder 
as prayer rooms. His prayers were prob- 
ably private, except that away up near 
the top of the vaulted dome there were 
some dozen or more little enclosed plat- 
3 3Z 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

forms entered from the labyrinthine second 
story, from which the numerous members 
of his harem had been graciously permitted 
to watch their common husband at his 
devotions. A feature of this building is 
its ceiling. Each room has a ceiling with a 
pattern different from that of any other 
room. The variety of geometric forms, 
the coloring, the curves and convolutions 
combine to make them a pleasing study. 
The Great Imambara as a whole gives a 
restful feeling of majestic simplicity. It 
has a refreshing absence of fussy details, 
while its very immensity gives it impres- 
siveness. 

Our next objective point was the imam- 
hara at Husainabad, some half a mile to 
the westward of the Great Imambara. As 
we went through the outer courtyard we 
noticed several elephants and several torch 
bearers. These are Oriental signs of an 
approaching procession, so we went out 
into the road and awaited developments. 
Soon a procession began to form. We 
found, upon inquiry, that its destination, 
like our own, was the ''Palace of Lights,'' 
34 



A MUHARRAM DAY 

as the imamhara at Husainabad is called. 
The elements of the procession are more 
important than their order of march. In- 
dian bands, with their rude instruments, 
made the usual music. A large number of 
torch bearers marched along carrying iron 
forks with three or more prongs, and with 
rags saturated with oil wrapped about each 
prong and blazing merrily. Others carried 
colored banners in various stages of dilapi- 
dation. Several elephants lumbered along 
with happy crowds of passengers on their 
ample backs. Camels, far more awkward 
than any other beast of transportation that 
I have seen, were also present in consider- 
able numbers. Horsemen were also to be 
seen. None of these, however, were the 
significant parts of the procession. Husain 
and his brother were killed shortly after 
the marriage of Husain, and this proces- 
sion was to commemorate the wedding of 
Husain and the death of the two brothers. 
A richly-caparisoned, riderless horse rep- 
resented the horse which had been ridden 
at the marriage; a catafalque palled in 
black, preceded by male mourners, and 
37 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

followed by closed palanquins, representing 
female mourners, followed the horse. The 
mourners wailed loudly and beat violently 
upon their bare breasts during the march 
and also during the frequent halts. We 
passed the entire procession on our way to 
the "Palace of Lights," and we met it 
again on our way home. It was a weird 
performance — one that once seen will not 
be forgotten. 

The ''Palace of Lights" resembles the 
Great Imambara in being a tomb, but it 
differs from it in size and decorations. It 
takes its name from the fact that it is lit- 
erally so crowded with glass chandeliers 
and candelabra with their hundreds of 
pendants that it has a dazzling effect. In 
its courtyard are two reproductions of the 
Taj Mahal. The courtyard has also a 
small artificial lake. The place gives a 
beautiful effect by night, when brightly 
illuminated, although I liked the simplicity 
of the Great Imambara better. 

This closed our evening's observations, 
but the next evening we hired garis and 
took our wives to these two imamharas 



A MUHARRAM DAY 

and also to a third — the Shah Najaf, situ- 
ated near the river some two miles from the 
Great Imambara. 

Shah Najaf at once impressed one with 
its opulence. Its tombs were surrounded 
by silver railings, its walls were hung with 
elegant oil paintings; it had a number of 
fine mirrors, rich velvet banners embroid- 
ered with genuine gold and silver lined its 
walls, a throne of silver occupied a place 
of prominence, and the general effect was 
in startling contrast to the cheap decora- 
tion frequently met with in the East. Here 
one felt that no imposture was being per- 
petrated. The only jar to our feelings 
came when our self-imposed and officious 
guides loudly demanded backsheesh as we 
were leaving. One who lives placidly in 
India soon learns to overlook such a clamor, 
however. 

Soon after our visits to the imamharas 
came the day when the tazias were to be 
buried. On this day a great many pro- 
cessions are formed in the city. These 
processions carry tazias from the various 
mosques of the city to a piece of unoccu- 
39 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

pied ground in the outskirts of the city, 
where they are buried. 

The city authorities had ordered all 
Shia processions to be on their way before 
noon, and that no Sunni processions should 
start before noon. This was in order to 
prevent riots. We took a gari quite early 
in the morning and started for the burial 
place. When we came to the main road 
leading to the burial place we were told by 
an Indian policeman that our gari could 
proceed no further, so we got out and 
went forward on foot. As the various pro- 
cessions, most of which were small, moved 
slowly, we passed a considerable number of 
them. In several, though by no means 
all, of the processions a horse without a 
rider was led, as in the procession that had 
gone from the Great Imambara to the 
"Palace of Lights." One man carried a 
pole of such height that the feat of carrying 
it would have seemed impossible, if one 
had not actually seen it. Each procession 
that had mourners made frequent halts, 
during which the men beat their breasts 
and cried out violently, in regular cadence, 
40 



A MUHARRAM DAY 

''Hasan! Husain! Hasan! Husain!" — 
these being the names of the deceased 
brothers. The ceremony at the burial 
place was simple, the tazias being merely 
broken to pieces and buried in shallow 
graves; but the chief interest of the per- 
formance lay in the fact that there the 
lamentation reached its climax. Some of 
the mourners beat their bare backs with 
chains until the blood spurted from their 
wounds, and some of them became in- 
sensible. The vehemence of their lamenta- 
tion lost much of its effect when we saw 
them wipe perfectly tearless eyes, saw 
them assume a most jovial expression as 
soon as the burial was over, and learned 
that they were paid by wealthy Moham- 
medans to play their part. 

Such was one celebration by Moham- 
medans of the deaths of two of their re- 
vered leaders. 



41 



A DAY IN THE STREETS 

A DAY in the streets of Lucknow Is a series 
of revelations to a newcomer to India. 
Here people are seen in their natural state 
— not on dress parade, as at a mela or a 
Muharram celebration. 

The street itself is strange to an Ameri- 
can or a European. There are no side- 
walks, few street sprinklers, no awnings, 
no street cars, no delivery wagons, no 
drays drawn by horses, no tall buildings, 
no law against stock running at large, and 
practically no telephones. Lucknow has a 
few telephone lines connecting government 
offices. Streets in the Indian quarter of 
the city are narrow. They are dusty, if it 
is in the dry season, but it must be said, 
to the honor of the British Government, 
that they are kept surprisingly free from 
garbage. Men of the sweeper class go 
about the streets with cloths tied over 
their faces and carefully sweep up all 
42 



A DAY IN THE STREETS 

noxious refuse. The refuse is then gath- 
ered by the men who drive the city refuse 
carts and hauled to some suburban dump, 
or else to some place within the city where 
a fill is being made. These carts are of 
metal. Each cart is drawn by a single 
bullock. From time to time the hihishti 
(water-carrier) comes along with a goat 
skin full of water slung over his back and 
flushes the gutters. He sometimes sprinkles 
the street also, sowing the water broadcast 
by a dextrous motion of his hand. Loads 
carried by the water-carriers are cruelly 
heavy at times. On one occasion a number 
of water-carriers who were employed by the 
city pawned their goat skins, which were 
furnished by the municipality, and went 
in a body to see the theatrical performance. 
Most of the carriers can fill their goat skins 
at the city hydrants. Formerly the water 
was obtained from wells, from which it was 
drawn in great skin or leather buckets by 
bullocks. One prominent factor in cleaning 
the streets is the fuel gleaners. Women 
and children come along with baskets on 
their heads and gather up the fresh cow 
43 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

dung, and as bullocks are used for draft 
purposes, this kind of refuse is common. 
It is carried home, kneaded into little cakes 
with stubble, straw, or dry grass, plastered 
to the side of the house to dry, and then 
used for fuel. Where the bullocks owned 
by the municipality are stabled — and this, 
by the way, is on a principal street — one 
can see great quantities of these manure 
cakes drying on the ground in the sun. 
Women do the kneading, and they also 
clean the stables with their bare hands. 
Incongruous as it seems, they are fre- 
quently loaded with jewels. The scarcity 
of fuel also leads to the streets being kept 
almost absolutely free from scraps of paper, 
sticks, and bits of wood. During the dry 
season dust is very troublesome. I have 
not yet experienced a wet season, but I 
am told that the character of the soil and 
the violence of the rain are such that there 
is but little mud on the streets. 

The common form of dwelling in the 

distinctively Indian quarter is of mud, 

brick, or stone. It opens directly upon 

the street and the poorest of these houses 

44 




H 

C 

2 ^ 

O 11 




A DAY IN THE STREETS 

are miserably dark and un ventilated. As 
the quality of the houses rises one finds 
them built about a spacious courtyard, 
tastefully planted with shrubbery. It is a 
long time before one becomes so accus- 
tomed to looking through an opening in 
an unsightly mud wall into a beautiful 
courtyard that he ceases to be surprised. 
High walls are characteristic of the East. 
In passing along the streets it is often the 
case that a small shop opens directly upon 
the street, while in an almost dark room 
at the back one catches glimpses of the 
charpai (bedstead), which denotes that 
that is the sleeping apartment of the family. 
Goats and cattle live in close proximity to 
their owners. Goats furnish milk for the 
poor, because the animals are cheaply kept. 
Flat-roofed houses are much used. The 
roof is frequently of a material resembling 
cement. It makes a good place for sleep- 
ing purposes during the hot weather. One 
might become a philosopher as he lies on 
the roof of an Indian house on one of the 
glorious, brilliant moonlight nights, with 
the cool breeze gently blowing, if his pro- 
47 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

found contemplations were not occasionally 
disturbed by the loud cry of the night 
watchman, who calls out periodically in 
order that each of his subordinates may 
show by a similar call that he is not asleep, 
or by the dismal howl of a roaming jackal. 
House building is an interesting per- 
formance, especially if the house is of 
brick. Women carry the bricks on their 
heads, without any hod, the bricks being 
merely piled up with the head, protected 
usually by a cloth pad, as foundation. 
Mortar is carried in little baskets, likewise 
placed on the head. Mortar is most com- 
monly mixed by tramping with bare feet 
in the hole in the ground which serves as a 
mortar pit. As I passed the place where 
the group of buildings to be occupied by 
the new medical school was being erected, 
I saw mortar being mixed by bullock power. 
A large pole, some fifteen feet in length, 
was so fastened at one end as to leave it 
free to turn in a circle and a bullock was 
hitched to the other end. As the pole 
moved in a circle it also rotated, and a 
large wooden wheel, for which the pole 
48 



A DAY IN THE STREETS 

served as axle, was fastened near the bul- 
locks. This wheel moved round and round 
in a trench in which the materials to be 
mixed were placed. Instead of block and 
tackle, elevators or lifts, an inclined road- 
way is built and the brick and mortar 
carriers pass to and fro upon it. Many of 
these carriers are bejeweled from toes to 
ears. Bricks are brought to the building 
site on the backs of donkeys, or else in 
bullock carts drawn by two or three bul- 
locks or buffaloes. Horses are never used 
in hauling heavy loads. 

Costumes will be seen to range from 
zero upwards. Children up to five years 
of age may be allowed to go stark naked. 
They seem to be oblivious to dirt, flies, and 
heat. What is really more curious than 
absolute nakedness is to see children that 
are naked save for a few articles of jewelry, 
and this is exceedingly common. Often 
the jewelry is very cheap, but I have seen 
some children who had sufficient jewelry 
to indicate that it was not because of 
poverty that their garments were deficient. 
Pardah women — those who live veiled — go 
4 49 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

about the streets with their entire bodies 
enveloped in a cloth, with little holes for 
the eyes — like a horse-blanket. Some have 
no holes, but only thin places. Fardah 
beggars are sometimes met with. One 
also meets pardah women being carried 
about on a little platform, with a bamboo 
frame and a net bottom, slung from a long 
pole, and carried by two men; the frame 
being closely veiled by a cloth covering. 
The carriers have forked sticks on which 
they rest the conveyance when they have 
to stop for breath. A more expensive 
pardah conveyance is a box-like compart- 
ment, with sHding doors, similarly slung to 
a pole. Why the occupants do not smother 
when they ride in such a conveyance with 
the temperature in the sun's rays as high 
as 170° F., is an unexplained mystery. 
In contrast to the pardah women are the 
wealthy Indian men who love to be seen. 
Their smart carriages are drawn by fairly 
good horses. Two liveried servants sit on 
the driver's seat and two more stand up 
behind the body of the carriage. The 
gentleman himself is adorned with enough 
50 



A DAY IN THE STREETS 

gold lace and silver to satisfy a Spanish 
grandee. Children swarm in the streets 
unwashed, uncombed, unclothed, or poorly 
clad. An occasional Indian, clad in Euro- 
pean style, is met. Practically all persons 
so clad can speak English, although not 
all Indians who speak English dress in 
European style. 

A street scene that never loses interest 
is a potter at work with his clay. His 
apparatus is extremely simple — a supply 
of clay; a stone wheel like a grindstone, 
turning horizontally on a pivot; and his 
hands. The clay is placed on the wheel, 
the wheel is set to revolving, the clay is 
shaped into a cone, and the molding is 
done by hand at the apex. It is marvelous 
to see what varied forms of utensils can 
be- produced by means so simple, and also 
how many vessels that appear to be pre- 
cisely alike can be produced. A plate, a 
vase, a water bottle, a flower pot, a water 
jar, a saucer, a cup, and a variety of other 
things which have no English counterparts 
are produced with equal ease. One can 
buy a hundred fair-sized flower pots for 
51 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

fifty cents! A completed vessel is cut from 
the lump of clay by deftly passing a string 
under it. Another familiar scene is women 
grinding at the mill. A rude mortar has a 
stone fitted to it, and one or two women 
work at the task of grinding. The work 
must be irksome, and, if long continued, 
very tiresome. 

It will not be surprising if we meet a 
marriage procession during our day in the 
streets. First comes an Indian band, 
making music which has to Western ears 
a very monotonous sound. To the band 
succeeds an elephant and several camels, 
if the procession be a large one; but if not 
both elephant and camels may be lacking. 
A considerable number of bearers of col- 
ored banners pass along. The groom, who 
may be of any age, rides on an elephant, if 
wealthy; a horse, if less so; or goes on foot, 
if very poor. If the procession is en route 
to the bride's house the groom is the center 
of attraction; if the bride is being taken 
to the groom's house, she will be present. 
The bride will probably be veiled. She 
may be of any age less than fourteen years, 
52 




DHOBI. 
'l SAW A MAN TRYING TO SPLIT A ROCK WITH A SHIRT." — Mark Twain. 




AMONG TENANT FARMERS 



MUD HOUSES ARE THE RULE. 



A DAY IN THE STREETS 

although a bride is rarely more than twelve 
years of age and is usually considerably 
younger than twelve. The Government has 
made cohabitation before the wife is twelve 
illegal, but it is exceedingly difficult to con- 
trol what goes on in a zenana, and many an 
Indian mother is less than twelve years of age. 
That body lying on a stretcher and 
carried by four men is not a sick or injured 
person being taken to a hospital. It is a 
Hindu corpse being carried to the marghat 
(burning place). The body is uncoffined. 
Few male relatives and no female relatives 
accompany it to the burning place. The 
nearest male relative will light the funeral 
pyre. When the body is burned at one of 
the two burning places on the banks of the 
Gumti River, the ashes will be cast into 
the river; and if the family is too poor to 
buy enough wood to entirely burn the body 
the charred remains may be pushed into 
the river. If the person has died from 
plague, the body may be pushed along on a 
truck, because coolies are too much afraid 
of infection to carry it. A Mohammedan 
procession will terminate at a Moham- 
55 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

medan cemetery, as Mohammedans bury 
their dead. A Christian will be buried in 
a rude box made by a local carpenter. 
No coffins are to be had. A Christian 
may have a hearse, and a number of ve- 
hicles may be in the procession. All 
burials take place within a few hours of 
death. The climate and the fact that 
many dwellings consist of a single room, as 
also the prevalence of malignant types of 
disease, makes this imperative. 

Lepers are not segregated from other 
people, and they roam the streets, begging. 
Blind and lame persons also seem very 
numerous. This is partly due to the lack 
of competent medical aid and partly to 
the absence of asylums for such persons. 
Children suffer much from the ignorance 
and superstition of their parents. I saw 
one little boy with his left arm hanging 
limp by his side. Upon inquiry I found 
that he had fallen from a tree and that 
his parents, who lived across the street 
from a good hospital, had neglected to 
take the child to the doctor until it was too 
late to help him. 

56 



A DAY IN THE STREETS 

Goats and donkeys share the streets 
with humanity. Such goats! Some of 
them are almost as tall as the donkeys. 
They have great ears, eight or ten inches 
long, and teats from four to six inches 
long. They are much prized for their 
milk and also for their flesh. People who 
have religious scruples against eating beef 
or pork have none against eating goat meat. 
Donkeys are miserably small, but col- 
lectively they do a great amount of work. 
The man who comes along the street with a 
donkey laden with a pile of clothes larger 
than itself is a dJiohi (washerman), and is 
on his way to the river to wash clothes. 
If our walk leads us near the river we can 
see him at work. He stands in the water 
at the edge of the stream and beats the 
clothes on a stone or a corrugated board. 
He actually seems to get the clothes much 
cleaner than the water in which he washes 
them. Often a dhohi has a bullock instead 
of a donkey to carry his clothes to the river. 
A donkey is frequently accompanied by a 
colt, somewhat larger than a jack-rabbit, 
but ridiculously small for a colt. Dogs 
57 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

roam the streets In a way to suggest Con- 
stantinople. Monkeys are frequently seen 
in the trees or on the roofs of houses. 

Two of the sports that may be seen are 
pigeon flying and kite flying. Flocks of 
pigeons are trained to circle about in the 
air and then to return to their owner at 
his call. Two owners meet, send out their 
pigeons, and then call them in. If a 
pigeon returns to the wrong man it be- 
comes his property. Kites are flown to a 
great height. The game in this sport is 
to make your own kite string cut that of 
your opponent. A kite cut from the string 
is common property. The elite way of 
capturing such a kite is to cause your own 
to so circle about it as to entangle the 
loose string of the wandering kite with 
your own string. Kite flyers become ex- 
pert, and on fair days scores and even 
hundreds of kites may be seen above the 
city. 

A rectangular bit of masonry about 
7x3 feet in area, and with a rounding ridge 
in the center, is the tomb of a Moham- 
medan saint. It may be white or blue in 
58 



A DAY IN THE STREETS 

color. Gifts of flowers, fruit, or sweetmeats 
may be upon it. However much the tomb 
may be in the way it must not be disturbed. 
In this land of many gods one is not per- 
mitted by law to tear down a Moham- 
medan tomb, throw a hog's head into a 
mosque, defile a Hindu's stock of sweet- 
meats by touching it, plow over the 
grave of a Christian, or in any way offer 
insult to religious feelings. The justice of 
such a law is apparent. 



59 



A DAY IN THE BAZAR 

A bazar, in India, is a market-place. Dif- 
ferent bazars are known by the names of 
the districts in which they are located, as 
Aminabad Bazar, Chauk Bazar. Such a 
place would be of considerable interest 
even though it were merely a place for 
buying and selling, but it gains a double 
interest from the fact that it is also a 
manufacturing district. When an exhibi- 
tion of manufactured articles from India 
is made at such a place as a world's expo- 
sition, the visitors have before them visions 
of large and well-appointed factories where 
the articles have been made. Nothing 
could be farther from the truth. Articles 
worth hundreds and even thousands of 
dollars are produced in miserable little 
shops that could hardly be rented for the 
meanest huckster's stall in America or 
Europe. Indian manufactures are a marvel, 
not because similar articles can not be made 
60 



A DAY IN THE BAZAR 

elsewhere, but because of the extreme 
crudity of the appHances used. Manual 
dexterity reaches a perfection hardly 
dreamed of in countries where modern 
mechanical appliances are in use. Time 
is plentiful in India. It takes days to 
produce an article here that might be pro- 
duced in minutes elsewhere. As a result 
the Indian manufacturer is likely to be a 
poor man, because when he comes to sell 
his product he must compete with machine- 
made articles, and he is thus in precisely 
the condition of the hand-weavers of Eng- 
land at the time of the Industrial Revolu- 
tion. Now for a visit to the Lucknow 
hazars! 

Most of the shops in the hazar have the 
entire front open to the street. At night 
the folding doors are drawn together and 
secured with, a stout padlock. A shop is 
usually but a few feet wide, and the stock 
rarely occupies more than the ground floor. 
Three sides of such shops as deal in toys, 
cloth, or such articles as can be similarly 
stowed away, are covered with shelves 
from top to bottom. A shop is usually 

61 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

crowded to its utmost capacity, but the 
keeper has a singular faculty of being able 
to lay his hand on any article in his shop 
at any moment. Intersecting alleys are 
rare, long lines of shops being side by side 
in an unbroken row. A surprising number 
of shopkeepers know a little English, and 
those who know none are adepts at inter- 
preting the most broken Hindustani. A 
white visitor is usually given a stool or 
chair on which to sit. 

First we shall visit a tailor shop. As 
we enter, the proprietors rise and stand 
ready to be of service. If our wants are 
not immediately stated, chairs are pro- 
vided for us. It is an advantage to have a 
lady in the party, because it will take the 
display of a great deal of goods to satisfy 
her curiosity or to enable her to select 
the materials for a new dress. The shelves 
rise to the low ceiling on three sides of the 
shop. We shall really find here, what our 
home dealers always profess to have, good 
goods at low prices. The price paid for 
clothing will be the resultant of a number 
of forces, among them are the original cost 
62 



A DAY IN THE BAZAR 

of the goods, the astuteness of the seller, 
and the generosity of the buyer. Very few 
shops have one fixed price. I did not men- 
tion the astuteness of the proprietor as a 
factor in determining price, because I 
named variable factors; while the astute- 
ness of an Indian shop-keeper is a constant 
factor. We ask how much a suit of a given 
material will cost, and the proprietor, 
having previously formed some conception 
of our financial condition and of our greater 
or less experience in the East, names a 
certain sum. If we have neglected to 
inquire from an experienced European or a 
reliable Indian acquaintance what the price 
should be, we may pay what is asked, 
congratulating ourselves that we are getting 
the article much cheaper than at home; 
but if the price asked has been based upon 
our evident newness in India, we can prob- 
ably get the suit for from two-thirds to 
one-half of the price asked. A shop-keeper 
will never sell below cost. He may sell at 
any figure above cost that he can secure. 
Good trousers of stout white drill can be 
had, made to order, for from three to three 
63 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

and one-half rupees per pair. White flannel 
trousers may cost ten rupees ($3.33^) per 
pair. These prices are for white persons 
not in governmental service. There is one 
price for well-paid government servants, 
another for missionaries, another for Eura- 
sians, and another for Indians. There are 
also minor gradations, such as between an 
ordinary preacher and a bishop, or between 
an Indian with a sola topee (pith helmet 
worn by Europeans, Eurasians, and Angli- 
cized Indians, and necessary to protect 
Europeans from the effect of the sun) and 
an Indian with a pagri (turban worn by 
Indian men). This method of fixing prices 
is not confined to either tailor shops or 
India. It is Oriental. I have encountered 
it in Japan, China, Hongkong, and in the 
Straits Settlements as well as here in India. 
If a purchaser offers a shop-keeper in any 
of these places a fair price for his goods 
it is likely to be quietly accepted, but if 
by offering a very high price he betrays 
ignorance of local values a great cry for 
more money at once ensues. A favorite 
trick is for the shop-keeper to be out of 
64 



A DAY IN THE BAZAR 

change; but if the customer merely starts 
away without paying, the change will soon 
be found either in the shop where the 
purchase is made or in an adjoining one. 

Another kind of cloth shop is the place 
where chikan work is manufactured and 
sold. This is embroidery and drawn work. 
It is a delight to see the workmen make 
the intricate and beautiful patterns all by 
hand. In embroidery, threads of real gold 
and silver are often used, and the workman 
in a mean little shop may be seen spinning 
his own threads from the minute films of 
gold and silver. The cheapness of the 
articles offered for sale is not the result of 
poor work or of poor materials, but rather 
of a skill that can use threads of such fine- 
ness that but little of the precious metals 
is actually used. 

Goldsmiths and silversmiths also ply 
their trades in the bazar. A large variety 
of articles is made from beaten gold or 
silver. A silver cobra stares at you from 
the counter. Silver goblets, lined with 
gold; silver bracelets, silver card trays, 
silver jewelry of all kinds; gold watch chains, 
5 65 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

gold cuff buttons, golden trays, are seen in 
abundance. The work shop is a scene of 
much interest as the skilled workmen beat 
and bend and twist the articles into shape. 
A large shop may have foot rests, chairs, 
and even tables made of gold or silver. 
When an Indian raja (nobleman) goes 
forth to shop he may pay many thousands 
of dollars for one piece of furniture. India 
is miserably poor, but she has some ex- 
tremely wealthy men, and probably no 
country in the world could make a more 
extensive showing of gold, silver, and 
precious stones. The display in the fine 
arts building at the United Provinces 
Exposition in Allahabad in the winter of 
1910-1911 looked like a scene from the 
Arabian Nights; and some of the mag- 
nificent exhibits came from the obscure 
shops in the narrow streets of the Chauk 
Bazar in Lucknow. 

An inlayer's shop has men at work at 
inlaying precious stones, ivory, rare woods, 
gold, silver, and, in fact, the whole cate- 
gory of materials that are useful for the 
purpose. After visiting a good shop of 

66 



A DAY IN THE BAZAR 

this sort, the fact that the Taj Mahal, that 
crowning glory of all inlaid work, is situ- 
ated in India seems eminently appropriate. 
Much of the work shows by its patterns 
and the blending of colors that the work- 
men have a truly artistic sense. 

Carving is common. The most inter- 
esting is the carving in ivory, because 
here the material is of such a character 
as to make the product exceedingly val- 
uable. Carving in wood is of a great vari- 
ety of patterns. God-carving is a flourish- 
ing industry. One wonders that when the 
Indians are capable of conceiving such 
beautiful objects as are often displayed in 
their shops, they should make such hideous 
idols as many of them are. Gods are 
usually of wood or stone. 

Stamping cloth by hand is a separate 
business. Fast colors are used. Dies are 
made on wood, and these are dipped into 
the coloring matter and then pressed upon 
the cloth. 

Weaving is done by hand. I remember 
coming upon a shop where a large rug, of 
a complicated design involving many colors, 
67 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

was being woven. Behind the rude frame 
stood four weavers — two men and two 
mere boys — handUng what seemed to me 
to be a hopelessly tangled maze of threads 
of various colors and swiftly forming from 
these threads the desired design without a 
flaw. I thought then, as I think still, that 
when India comes to put into the operation 
of modern machinery the skill that she now 
puts into handicrafts she will be a really 
great manufacturing nation. When that 
time will come, I do not presume to say. 

A cabinet maker delights in making 
first-class products from very unpromising 
material. With the most meager appliances 
a broad board one inch thick can be sawed 
into two half-inch boards, even though 
the width be a foot or more. A long board 
can be ripped into narrow strips with great 
accuracy. Boards of irregular thickness 
will be planed to perfect uniformity. None 
of these results would be worth mentioning 
if it were not for the skill shown in the use 
of a few very rude tools. It is this, after 
all, that constitutes the charm of Indian 
industrial life for the observer. 
68 



A DAY IN THE BAZAR 

Our day in the bazar is too short to 
permit a protracted visit to a typical shop 
of each kind. What we have seen will 
enable us to understand that basket weav- 
ers, chair makers, chik (bamboo screen) 
makers, brass workers, makers of arti- 
ficial flowers, shoe makers, iron workers 
are alike in using rude means to produce 
good results. 

A baker makes chapatis (flat, unleav- 
ened cakes) in the following fashion. He 
takes a little bit of dough, flattens it on a 
stone, deftly passes it quickly from one 
hand to the other with such a motion as 
to make it continually thinner and thinner, 
and when it is thin enough he suddenly 
claps it onto the inner side of an oven 
shaped like a wide-mouthed earthen jar, 
the cake adhering to the inside of the oven 
at the bottom of which is a fire of coals. 
The process goes on like clock work, and 
a baker who lets a chapati fall on the coals 
at the bottom of the oven — apparently 
the only natural thing to do — would feel 
disgraced. Mithai (candy) makers also 
ply their trade in the open. Indian mithai 
69 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

is fried in ghi (clarified butter). Ghi is 
used instead of lard, because both Moham- 
medans and Hindus use ghi, although 
neither use lard. It is rare for Europeans 
to buy mithai in the bazars unless they 
have seen it made and know that it is 
fresh and clean. Candy shops are a per- 
fect paradise for flies, and one wonders 
whether Indians are germ-proof or whether 
a part of the awful mortality in India is 
due to the general neglect of the most 
fundamental of sanitary laws. Any one 
who likes ghi is likely to relish Indian 
mithai, for a ghi taste is found in varying 
degrees in almost all of the several kinds 
of candy. I like the candy quite well, as 
the omnivorous characteristic of boyhood 
has persisted in me. 

Fruit shops are usually distinct from 
mithai shops. India has a considerable 
variety of fruits, but a description of these 
kinds that are distinctively Indian would 
probably be tedious. Of fruits common in 
America and Europe, Lucknow and its 
suburbs grow limes, lemons, musk melons 
(or at least a near relative), and bananas; 
70 



A DAY IN THE BAZAR 

while apples, peaches, pears, cherries, apri- 
cots, plums, and grapes are brought from 
the Himalayan region, and tropical fruits 
from Southern India. These, with the 
distinctively Indian fruits, some of which 
are delicious, furnish a good supply. 

One of the largest vegetable markets 
in Lucknow is situated at the entrance to 
the Chauk Bazar. Here, every morning, 
congregate the representatives from the 
various truck gardens in and about the 
city. Most of the vegetables are carried 
to market in great baskets placed on the 
head of the owner or on that of his servant; 
but sometimes loads of cauliflower will be 
brought to market on a truck pushed and 
pulled by from two to four men. Vege- 
tables are placed in piles on the ground. 
The tendency to use everything usable — 
a tendency exemplified on every hand in 
India — is seen here in the heaps of Irish 
potatoes. Some of them are scarcely larger 
than peas. These small potatoes are used 
by the Indians in the making of curries. 
I have never seen a market with ice to 
keep vegetables cool, nor with screens to 
71 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

keep out the flies. Even meat markets are 
without these things. Purchasers soon learn 
to go to market early in the morning. 

The bird market is a lively place. The 
birds are confined in cages of wicker work. 
Such small animals as are used for pets 
are also offered for sale here. Dealers carry 
their live stock to the market each morning 
and return to their home with whatever 
remains unsold in the evening. 



72 



A DAY IN THE COUNTRY 

Our day in the country naturally begins 
with the truck gardens in the suburbs of 
Lucknow. The most striking thing about 
them is the method of their irrigation. 
Such gardens as border the Gumti River, 
as many of them do, are irrigated from that 
river with a very simple contrivance. 
Sweeps, like the old-fashioned well-sweeps 
with a bucket hanging by a rope to one end 
of the sweep and a weight attached to the 
other end, are placed along the river banks, 
and with these all the water needed for 
irrigation is raised. Men furnish the motive 
power. Truck gardens are well irrigated 
by this laborious method. The gardens 
themselves are kept almost absolutely free 
from weeds. When I first visited them, in 
the early part of April, the chief crops I 
noticed were onions, some of which had 
73 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

already produced seed; a vine producing a 
fruit much like a cucumber, and serving 
the same purpose; wheat, which was being 
harvested; and Irish potatoes. Potatoes 
were being dug with an instrument re- 
sembling a chisel. No potatoes were too 
small to be used. An Indian friend of 
mine has a truck garden of some three 
acres, and from him I learn that he pays 
his laborers three annas (six cents) per day. 
This rate is a common one, although in 
some parts of India even lower wages are 
paid. 

Leaving behind us the truck gardens, 
we come into the country proper. India 
is pre-eminently a land of villages. Isolated 
farm houses are rarely seen. A group of 
families collects in a village and men and 
women and. children go out from it every 
morning to their work in the fields. There 
are other reasons than mere love of com- 
panionship for this grouping of families. 
One well may suffice for an entire village. 
One priest, one grain dealer, one chamar 
(leather worker), one blacksmith, one mid- 
wife is sufficient. Another striking thing 
74 



A DAY IN THE COUNTRY 

seen on a visit to the country is the small 
size of the land holdings. India is a 
country of great estates, but these great 
estates are divided into holdings so small 
that in some entire provinces the average 
is less than three acres. This minute par- 
celing of the land makes it expedient to 
group dwellings rather than to have a 
dwelling on each little holding. 

Among tenant farmers — and almost all 
farmers are tenants — mud houses are the 
rule. Whole villages have no other kind 
of dwelling. These houses are of one low 
story. Their roofs are usually of a thatch 
made of the long jungle grass. Windows 
are almost always lacking, and usually 
there is but one door. The poverty of 
many of the dwellings is abject. Life is 
reduced to absolutely its lowest terms. 
Many a dwelling has no bed, no chairs, no 
tables, no stove, no floor except the earth, 
no carpet — absolutely no furniture except 
one or two cooking utensils and at least 
one vessel for holding water. At public 
auction a family's furniture might bring 
one rupee (33% cents). The dish in which 
75 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

food is cooked Is the dish from which it is 
eaten. A chapati (an unleavened cake of 
meal) takes the place of a spoon, if anything 
requiring the substitute for a spoon is 
eaten, a bit of chapati being folded about 
the other food. Chapatis are the chief 
food of the poor. A bishop tells of being 
entertained in a poor home, and of being 
given a dried leaf of a tree to serve as a 
plate. Wives do not eat with their hus- 
bands, but cook the husband's food first, 
and their own afterwards. Cooking is 
usually done in the open air during fine 
weather, but in the stormy weather a fire 
is built on the ground which serves as the 
floor of the house, the smoke escaping — 
if it escapes at all — through either the door- 
way or the thatched roof. The fuel is 
commonly dried cow's dung, kneaded into 
cakes with a little straw or chaff when 
fresh. Little mounds of this fuel are built 
and coated over with mud during the dry 
season, to use during the wet season. There 
is much sufl"ering from the cold in winter. 
Food, fuel, clothing, and shelter are all so 
scarce that many of the poor shiver and 
76 



A DAY IN THE COUNTRY 

die from diseases induced by exposure to 
the cold. Over and over, when I have gone 
for a walk dressed in a heavy woolen suit, 
heavy underwear, and a heavy overcoat, I 
have met peasants clad in the thinnest 
kind of a loin cloth, and with absolutely 
no other clothing. 

Rent is high. After paying the govern- 
ment tax and the landlord's rent the peas- 
ant frequently finds it impossible to live, 
even in the fashion that I have described, 
on what remains. He then has recourse 
to the village grain dealer, who loans grain 
to him at a ruinous rate of interest. The 
normal condition of thousands of culti- 
vators is that of being hopelessly in debt. 

It would be thought that in so wretched 
a state of poverty a man would be con- 
sistently economical. There is, however, 
one conspicuous extravagance among all 
classes of India, and that is the wedding 
ceremonies. Every wedding must have its 
paid musicians and banner carriers, and 
also its protracted feast, not to mention 
the dowry. A man in well-to-do circum- 
stances may pay off the debt contracted 
77 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

at his daughter's wedding in a few years, 
but a poor man may never pay his debt. 
A poor wedding is a miserable show, with 
its dirty and ragged musicians and banner 
carriers; but when the expense of even 
the cheapest wedding is measured in terms 
of the father's daily earnings it is simply 
tremendous. Bridegrooms of different types 
command different prices. A few years 
ago a father came to a leading Indian 
college and asked for a list of the men 
students of a certain caste. He was given 
the list, and upon being asked why he 
wished it he said that he had a daughter 
eleven years of age who must be married 
within a year, and that he was willing to 
give 25,000 rupees {$S,333y3) to a man 
with the degree of Bachelor of Arts who 
would marry her. Education, family re- 
lationships, and social standing are de- 
termining factors in the price paid for a 
bridegroom. 

Division of labor is carried on to a consid- 
erable extent even on an Indian farm. Each 
village must have a chamar (leather worker) , 
whose business it is to furnish the leather 

78 



A DAY IN THE COUNTRY 

bags for drawing and carrying water, to 
mend harness, and to provide whips. There 
must also be a blacksmith, a potter, and a 
priest. One of the functions of the priest 
is to light the fire at the time of the cele- 
bration of the Holi festival — an annual 
Hindu festival. All of these men are or- 
dinarily paid so much by each family per 
year, payment being in grain. When grain 
is reaped, the farmer must apportion to 
each man his respective share of the crop. 
Small grains, among which wheat is 
the chief but by no means the only one, 
are the leading crop grown in this part of 
India. A team of bullocks and a rude plow 
are used in preparing the ground for sow- 
ing. The ground is plowed over and 
over until the soil is in good condition. 
Sowing is sometimes done by the plowman 
making a very shallow furrow with his 
plow, his wife or daughter following after 
him and drilling the wheat into the furrow 
by hand and the seed being covered by 
the plow as it makes the next furrow. The 
ripe grain is cut with a hand sickle, and 
threshed by flailing or by trampling with 
79 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

bullocks. I have never seen either a horse 
or a cow used as a work animal on a farm. 
Bullocks, or else male buffaloes, are 
used. 

Irrigation from wells is much in vogue. 
In such irrigation, bullocks are used in 
drawing the water from the wells. From 
the mouth of the well an inclined plane is 
constructed. • It slopes downward from 
the mouth of the well, being made by dig- 
ging a broad trench which increases in 
depth as the distance from the well in- 
creases, and being longer or shorter accord- 
ing as the well is deep or shallow. A rope 
is fastened to a great leather bucket and 
run over a wheel above the well, the 
bullocks being hitched to the other end 
of the rope. This method of irrigation re- 
quires numerous wells. 

Very few of the cultivators are literate, 
and this makes it difficult to introduce 
improved methods. An unusually intelli- 
gent and well-educated Bengali has a farm 
near Lucknow, which h^ runs by modern 
methods. He receives each month the 
bulletin of the New York Department of 
80 



A DAY IN THE COUNTRY 

Agriculture. His experience has been that 
his neighbors are apathetic in regard to any 
improvement, even though a clear demon- 
stration is before them. 

A novel harvest in the country is that 
of the very tall, coarse grass that is used 
in making grass houses and thatched roofs. 
The grass is cut near to the ground, and is 
subsequently graded according to length. 
Grass houses can be quickly and cheaply 
erected. People take refuge in them when 
the plague is raging. Country people are 
frequently panic-stricken when plague is 
prevalent, and they move from place to 
place in a vain search for a place of safety. 
When the census of 1911 was taken, the 
country people felt sure that the Govern- 
ment was counting them in order to de- 
termine how many should be killed by the 
plague. As a proof it was pointed out that 
very few Europeans died from plague. It 
was also thought that the Government 
was determined to drive Hindus and Mo- 
hammedans to become Christians, because 
few Christians died from plague. In gen- 
eral Christians live in more hygienic con- 
6 81 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

editions than non-Christians of the same 
social stratum. 

Hindus have strict scruples against the 
taking of life. A consequence is that birds 
and animals are sometimes a source of 
much annoyance and considerable damage 
in farming districts. I have sometimes 
wondered whether the great flocks of crows 
that invaded newly-sown wheat fields would 
leave any seed in the ground. Farmers put 
up four bamboo poles and erect on them 
a platform at a considerable distance from 
the ground. These platforms are used by 
vigilant watchmen at critical times in the 
life of a crop. Both the danger of malaria 
and the danger from wild animals make it 
expedient to have the platform at a con- 
siderable height above the ground. A 
large number of peasants are killed each 
year by wild animals. Another danger 
which is ever present in many parts of India 
is that of snake bite. The cobra and the 
karait are snakes whose bite is almost al- 
ways fatal. Their names are synonyms of 
horror. Even in the great city of Luck- 
now careful persons will never step out of 
82 



A DAY IN THE COUNTRY 

bed in the dark without first striking a 
match to see whether a snake is on the 
floor — unless, indeed, a hght be kept con- 
stantly burning. A missionary in an out- 
lying station killed thirty-one cobras in 
thirty days, and that merely in the course 
of his ordinary work. The poor peasants 
go barefooted, sleep on the floor, and must 
often go where the grass and weeds grow 
thick. It is no wonder that their fear of 
snakes is an omnipresent one. A mon- 
goose — an animal like a weasel, but larger 
— will fight, and almost invariably kill, a 
snake if the mongoose is itself in danger; 
but the idea that these animals will hunt 
snakes and will soon rid a locality of them 
is false. The most dangerous of the larger 
animals are the tiger and the leopard. 
Elephants kill a few people, but very few 
in comparison with the animals just named. 
Goats and chickens are an accompani- 
ment of a farm. Geese and ducks are hardly 
so common. Peacocks and pheasants are 
frequently found in a wild state. Swine 
are seen in many places. It is easy to 
abstain from eating pork in India after one 
S3 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

has seen a drove of Indian hogs. They 
resemble the worst of the proverbial razor 
backs of the United States. A fat hog 
seems never to have been thought of. I 
suppose they stand the heat well, certainly 
no surplus fat makes them suffer. 



84 



A DAY WITH MY STUDENTS 

One who comes from America to teach in 
any Indian college is at first struck by those 
things that differ from that to which he 
has been accustomed. The costumes of 
the students range from pure Indian to 
European. The covering for the head is 
the most distinctive article of dress. My 
Hindu students usually wear a small, round, 
bill-less cap; Mohammedans almost always 
wear a taller, scarlet cap; and Christians 
may wear any kind of head-dress in vogue 
in India. Solah topies (pith helmets) are 
frequently worn by Christians and much 
less frequently by non-Christians. A Chris- 
tian who wears a high red cap is almost 
invariably of Mohammedan descent. The 
assumption of the solah topie by Indian 
Christians is for social and economic rea- 
sons, as is shown by the fact that many 
Indian Christians do not wear either it or 
85 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

any other protection from the fierce heat 
of an Indian summer. A very few students 
wear the pagri — a turban made by winding 
a single, very long strip of cloth about the 
head. It requires some time to skillfully 
construct such a head-dress, but when 
once constructed it must constitute quite 
an efficient protection from the cold of 
winter. The wearing of the dhoti, instead 
of trousers, is not rare. This garment, 
like a pagri, is made from one long strip of 
cloth; by winding it first about the waist, 
then about the legs, and fastening it at 
the waist behind. The greater part of the 
legs is left bare. A rather common type of 
Indian trousers is made to fasten with a 
drawstring at the waist, is wide at the 
hips, and so extremely narrow at the ankles 
and the lower part of the legs that the 
wearer looks as if he had been molded into 
them. A very long coat, made with a 
collar like an outing shirt, and worn with- 
out a shirt, is much worn. An occasional 
student wears a long scarf thrown over one 
shoulder and brought beneath the arm on 
the other side, thus giving the wearer a 




REID CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 




STUDENTS IN CHAPEL. 



A DAY WITH MY STUDENTS 

decidedly Grecian aspect as he strolls along 
the wide veranda. Low shoes, frequently 
tennis shoes, are worn. Stockings are 
among the luxuries rather than essentials. 
Handkerchiefs are commonly absent — con- 
spicuously so during the winter months, 
when during one recitation as many as 
half-a-dozen students may quietly get from 
their seat, step to the veranda upon which 
all class rooms open, and either spit or 
blow their noses with most audible vigor. 
A teacher soon learns not to be annoyed 
by the process, but rather to be thankful 
that the veranda, instead of the room, is 
made the scene of action. Christians re- 
move their hats when in the class room, 
but non-Christians may or may not do so, 
as it is not considered impolite for them 
to remain covered. What has really hap- 
pened is that Mohammedans and Hindus 
have adopted the Christian custom of wear- 
ing shoes within doors, without adopting 
the custom of uncovering the head. It is 
a common rule among Indian Christian 
men that either the head or the feet should 
be uncovered when within doors — the 
89 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

former if European dress is worn, and the 
latter if Indian dress is retained. An 
Indian shoe is so made that it is rather 
easier to take it off than it is to keep it on. 
Overcoats are but little worn. Many of 
the students are so poor that they suffer 
terribly during the vdnter from lack of 
clothing. This leads me to speak of the 
health of the students. 

The health of Indian college students is 
far below the American standard. It is 
not strange that this should be so when 
one considers the conditions in which they 
live. Vegetarians from principle, and in- 
sufficiently fed and scantily clothed from 
poverty, the students have little oppor- 
tunity to fortify themselves against disease. 
Dwellings are often unhygienic to the 
last degree, being deficient in air, light, 
cleanliness, and in heating facilities for the 
winter season and cooling facilities for the 
summer. A student comes to school at 
half past ten o'clock and remains until 
after four o'clock without a bite to eat. 
I have often wondered how the hungry, 
shivering students could do as good work 
90 



A DAY WITH MY STUDENTS 

as many of them do. There is a university 
regulation requiring each student to be in 
attendance at as many as three-fourths 
of the recitations during the school year — 
a margin for absence unheard of in America 
• — and yet it is not infrequent for an am- 
bitious and conscientious student to be 
ill so much of the time that he fails to 
make the required attendance. Colds, 
fevers, stomach, and bowel troubles play 
havoc. During the matriculation examina- 
tion of 1911 two students wrote in spite 
of fever — one of them with a temperature 
of 103° F., and with a supply of ice water 
at his side. Repeatedly students have 
come to me and asked to be allowed to 
go home, as they were suffering from fever, 
and usually their appearance has fully 
confirmed the statement. To the reasons 
already given for poor health may be 
added the fact that many students are, 
from a physical standpoint, poorly born. 
I once asked a mature student whether 
girls who were physically weak or de- 
formed were married. He replied that 
they were, their fathers marrying them 
91 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

to some one who had never seen them. 
Men, also, who are so weakly that they 
ought not to marry, do not consider their 
health a bar to matrimony. Add to this 
the prevalence of child marriage and it 
at once becomes evident that many an 
Indian begins life with a lamentably de- 
ficient supply of vitality. 

Indian students are respectful, diligent, 
and capable of doing good work. They 
are severely handicapped by having to do 
their work in a language foreign to them. 
This may explain to some extent the fact, 
which soon becomes apparent, that they 
depend to a great extent upon compen- 
diums and upon teachers' notes. When a 
new text-book is adopted, straightway some 
Indian teacher publishes a digest of it, and 
all the students use the digest instead of 
the text-book. Occasionally a digest of a 
digest is issued. An Indian student ac- 
complishes great feats of memory, but he 
is often lacking in assimilation. Amazed 
at the number of dates given in a certain 
history test, I counted the numbers in the 
two papers. One man had given thirty- 
92 



A DAY WITH MY STUDENTS 

three dates and the other thirty-five, and 
had given them correctly. In a hst of 
questions involving both memory and rea- 
son, an Indian student would be likely to 
excel in the former and an American stu- 
dent in the latter. The conclusion that no 
Indian students are thinkers would be in- 
correct, but the general tendency is as above 
stated. The diligence of the students is 
such that health is frequently sacrificed to 
ambition. A custom that is curious to a 
newcomer is that of allowing students to 
have from four to eight weeks' vacation 
before the university examinations in order 
to allow them to review their work. This 
time is spent in such close application to 
work, so far as the expenditure of hours 
per day is concerned, that a student runs 
a very great risk of coming to the examina- 
tion in so nervous and exhausted a state 
that he is foredoomed to failure. Students 
would learn much more by applying them- 
selves more intensely in their work for fewer 
hours; but this is a difficult thing for them 
to comprehend. Orientals are proverbially 
respectful, and discipline in the class room 
93 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

is practically unnecessary. Students rise 
when either the teacher or a visitor enters. 

Indian college alumni occupy a social 
position far more important than do col- 
lege alumni in Western countries. In 
India education is at once very rare and 
very much esteemed. The learned pro- 
fessions occupy a position in the social 
scale comparable to that accorded to the 
ministry in New England in colonial days. 
Our alumni go out to be lawyers, physi- 
cians, teachers, ministers, or government 
servants, and as such they are influential. 
Unfortunately a business career has not 
yet gained such social prestige as to make 
it attractive to college men. The influence 
of the caste system on the social standing 
of manual laborers seems closely parallel 
to that of slavery. 

Most non-Christian college students are 
married. Marriage in India is not con- 
comitant with cohabitation, but a public 
school boy may have from one to three or 
more children. It is not regarded as good 
form to ask an Indian about his wife or 
daughters, but I have frequently talked 
94 










I'M' 




REV. J. R. CHITAMBAR, PRINCIPAL OF OUR HIGH SCHOOL, 

AND HIS WIFE. 

OUR ALUMNI GO OUT TO BE LAWYERS, PHYSICIANS, TEACHERS, MINISTERS. 



m 




CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS WITH THEIR Y. M. C A. LEADERS. 



A DAY WITH MY STUDENTS 

with my students on the subject. Many a 
married student fully realizes the evils of 
child marriages, but he has come to that 
realization after his own marriage had been 
arranged for him. My heart has ached 
for a man as he told me that child mar- 
riages resulted in loveless homes, incom- 
patability of temperament of husband and 
wife, impossibility of intellectual compan- 
ionship, and that these conditions were 
reflected in the character of the children; 
while I knew, and he knew that I knew, 
that his own life was bhghted by just such 
a case as he described. Cases are known 
where a boy has been wise enough to beg 
his parents to leave him unmarried until 
his education was completed; where a 
married man has persistently deferred co- 
habitation with his wife; or even where a 
man has refused to accept the wife pro- 
vided for him, and his parents have been 
compelled to seek another for him; but 
such cases are exceedingly few, and I know 
of no case where a non-Christian student 
has chosen his own wife. If a non-Chris- 
tian delays his marriage contract, it means 
7 97 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

that he must marry a girl much younger 
than himself, because no non-Christian 
Indian bride in good social standing should 
be over twelve years of age, whatever the 
age of the bridegroom may be. Such a 
marriage system effectually precludes the 
higher education of non-Christian Indian 
women, unless they attend school after 
their marriage. Non-Christian students 
never appear in public with their wives. 
Many students announced their determina- 
tion to educate their daughters, and occa- 
sionally a student declares his intention of 
sending his wife to school. Christians do 
not practice child marriage and some of 
the Christian women are as intellectual and 
as happy and as competent in their homes 
as are the Christian women of America. 
Widow re-marriage is also practiced among 
Indian Christians. 

Students are genuinely affectionate if 
teachers are so. So true is this that care 
needs to be exercised to keep students from 
giving to the teacher presents that the 
student can ill afford to buy. On more 
than one occasion I have seen a student 
98 




MISSION SCHOOL BOYS IN ALMORA. TOPEE (SEE PAGE 64) IN 
FOREGROUND. 




PICNIC GROUP OF MISSIONARIES AT ALMORA. 



A DAY WITH MY STUDENTS 

on his birthday come to the residence of his 
various teachers, followed by a coolie or 
servant carrying a large basket filled with 
fruit and sweetmeats, and present the con- 
tents to his teachers. Two Hindu students 
gave an elaborate Indian dinner to the 
entire faculty upon the occasion of the 
departure of the principal of the school 
upon a prolonged leave of absence. Some- 
times it is deemed best to decline to receive 
presents from students for fear their affec- 
tion may outrun their purse. It is un- 
doubtedly true that in some cases the 
present is intended as a bribe. To many 
an Indian absolute honesty is inconceivable. 
I am inclined to believe that in most cases 
the presents are given from no base motive. 

Careful watch is kept over students 
during examinations. Almost every year, 
in the university examinations, one or more 
students are caught cheating, although it 
is well known that one so caught is at 
once debarred from further examination 
during that year, and may be debarred 
for two years thereafter. 

A Hindu student was called home to 
101 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

perform religious rites in connection with 
the birth of his second child. Upon his 
return he explained to me the cause and 
the character of the rites. As soon as the 
child was born a priest was called in to 
cast the horoscope. The horoscope was 
not propitious, and to counteract it the 
prescribed rites were performed. The 
twenty-seventh day after the birth of the 
child was set by the priest as the time for 
the ceremonies. As the father was away 
from home at the time of the birth, he had 
not seen his child. He reached home in 
the evening, but he was compelled to re- 
main outside of the house until morning, 
because his first introduction to the child 
must be seeing the reflection of its face in a 
dish of oil. When morning came the father 
entered the house, his father brought a 
dish of oil, the mother of the child held 
the infant at the side of its father's head 
in such a position that the child's face was 
reflected in the oil; then for the first time 
the father could look upon the child's face. 
Another ceremony was for the father and 
mother of the child to sit side by side with 
102 



A DAY WITH MY STUDENTS 

the child in its mother's lap while the 
father's father held above them a specially 
prepared earthen jar, with twenty-seven 
holes — one for each day of the child's life — 
and gave them a bath. Another ceremony 
was the building of a fire in the room in 
which the child was born and burning on 
it ghi, sugar, and various other odoriferous 
substances. Twenty-seven Brahmans — 
again one for each day of the child's life — 
were given a feast. The only thing that 
saved the father of the child from having 
to banquet all the men of his caste in his 
village was the prevalence of the plague. 
The ceremonies cost two hundred rupees — 
the wages of a coolie for eight hundred 
days, or of an agricultural laborer for 
1,066/^ days — and the father was a poor 
man. 

Students are frequently apt critics of 
the social and economic conditions of 
India, sometimes of religious conditions 
also. From time to time some student is 
found who has the courage of his convic- 
tions — a degree of courage that it is difficult 
for a Westerner who has never been here 
103 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

to appreciate. It means courage to be 
cast out utterly by relatives and friends. 
The man who was himself a disciple, but 
secretly for fear of the Jews, has many a 
counterpart here; and many an Indian 
Christian takes up daily a cross of such 
weight as to command our profound respect. 



104 



A DAY AT THE NORTH INDIA 
CONFERENCE 

It is interesting for one who is new in 
India, and who has seen Hfe in the streets, 
bazars, melas, and the country districts, to 
have an opportunity to see some of the 
effects of Christianity in India. Such an 
opportunity came to me when the North 
India Conference of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church met in annual session in 
Lucknow in January, 1911. 

A first view of the Conference in session 
shows that its personnel is largely Indian. 
The few American missionaries who are 
members of the Conference are almost all 
in positions where the work is chiefly ad- 
ministrative — a bishop, several district su- 
perintendents, and heads of educational 
institutions. Not all administrative work 
is done by Americans. Some district super- 
intendents are Indian, and the head masters 
of several schools are Indian. 
105 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

The district superintendents were called 
upon one by one to give their reports. 
Among many other peculiarities was the 
size of their districts. So few are the 
workers in comparison to the work to be 
done that to one man is assigned the 
supervision over a district comparable in 
size to some of the American districts of 
pioneer days. There are other points of 
resemblance between the two. For ex- 
ample, the methods of travel, and the facili- 
ties for securing lodging when en route 
from one portion of the district to another 
are not better than in American pioneer 
days. Many a story of cumbersome bullock 
cart, swollen stream, miserable road, and 
disagreeable lodging can still be told by 
these hardy laborers, who become so ac- 
customed to the heroic that it seems com- 
monplace. I believe that the sacrifices of 
missionary life, which occupy a large place 
in the thought of Christians in America, 
occupy a very small place in the minds of 
the missionaries themselves. Some of the 
superintendents' reports had the clarion 
note of victory while others were less en- 
106 




EPWORTH, ALMORA. 




the deodars, almora. 
woman's foreign missionary society rest home. 



NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE 

couraging, but none were disheartening. 
A considerable increase in the number of 
Christians was shown. Conversions during 
the year had been from many castes. It 
is not true, as is sometimes beheved, that 
in India only outcasts and members of the 
lowest castes accept Christianity. Through 
the whole range from the proud Brahman 
to the meanest out-caste the gospel has won 
its devotees. It is true, here as elsewhere, 
that the wealthy and those in the highest 
social positions do not so readily accept 
Christianity as do the poor. The centuries 
have not bulged the needle's eye. 

Need for more money for the work is 
an ever-present one. India has so many 
millions of people that villages are num- 
bered by the multiplied thousands, and 
even within the borders of districts nomi- 
nally occupied by missionary forces there 
are many villages where the gospel is never 
preached, and many others where it is 
preached so irregularly as to give little 
opportunity to conserve results. When a 
small group of converts, surrounded by a 
perfect sea of heathen humanity, including 
109 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

in many cases the relatives of the converts, 
is left without a capable pastor it is small 
wonder if they fail to grasp in its entirety 
the teaching of the Bible. There is need 
here for smaller pastorates than in Chris- 
tian lands, but of necessity Indian pastor- 
ates are enormously large. Some of the 
Indian Churches are self-supporting, and 
when one considers the awful poverty that 
is so prevalent, the wonder is not that 
some Churches are not self-supporting, but 
that any of them have succeeded in rising 
to such a position. Many of the Indian 
ministers work on a salary that is the 
merest pittance, and that is far less than 
the same men could secure in other pro- 
fessions. Both these Indian men and their 
American and English colleagues prefer 
low salaries to a restriction of the field of 
labor. A little money is made to do a 
great amount of work. 

Some topics that were discussed in the 
conference brought one face to face with 
conditions distinctively Indian. One such 
question was in regard to the use of the 
individual communion cup. Any one who 
110 



NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE 

has watched the trend in the rehgious 
world during the last few years knows that 
the individual cup has been adopted in 
many places for various reasons, chiefly 
hygienic. It is evident that any hygienic 
reasons for abandoning the common cup 
elsewhere than in India would be intensi- 
fied here, because the physical conditions 
and the educational status are such that 
epidemic and infectious diseases are far 
more prevalent than in Western countries. 
So great is the fear of contagion that per- 
sons sometimes abstain from communion 
merely for this reason. Still the question 
of adopting the individual cup in India is 
a burning one. This is but one of the 
manifold results of the caste system. When 
Indian Christians drink from the same cup 
their caste is broken, hence there are ardent 
advocates of the common cup. Those who 
favor the adoption of the individual cup 
declare that here are abundant other 
opportunities for breaking caste, without 
resorting to a practice so manifestly un- 
hygienic. Another question concerning, 
communion was raised when one of the 
111 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

Indian district superintendents reported 
that he did not administer the sacrament 
to his probationers, but only to his full 
members. He contended that the purpose 
and the effect of the practice was to make 
such a distinction between the two classes 
of members that probationers were anxious 
to become full members. His opponents 
declared the discrimination to be unjustified. 

An evangelist was appointed by the 
conference. His work seems to be emi- 
nently successful, as the reports of his vari- 
ous meetings are invariably enthusiastic. 

The Rev. Mr. Buck, who visited the con- 
ference, gave an address in which he de- 
scribed his remarkable work among the 
chamars (leather workers). He has had 
what amounts to a mass movement among 
them. Although persons coming from all 
castes intermingle in the same congregation, 
it is manifestly easier for a man or woman 
to leave Hinduism and embrace Chris- 
tianity if many of their own caste in the 
same neighborhood have done so. It is 
easy to say glibly that a person should 
have the courage of his convictions, but 
112 



NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE 

when I consider that young men in Chris- 
tian countries refuse to become Christians 
for fear of the ridicule of their friends, I 
find myself with a vast amount of charity 
for the young Hindu who is called upon 
to turn his back upon home, friends, rela- 
tives, fortune — to give up all for his belief. 
I know an Indian Christian, who was 
formerly a Brahman, who, when he be- 
came a Christian, had his wife taken from 
him, and was himself so severely treated 
by his relatives that his hair turned gray 
in a single night. He remained steadfast, 
succeeded in rejoining his wife, and they 
began life anew with but a few cents in 
their possession. From such material a 
steadfast Church is made. Men of such 
conviction make fine evangelists. Indi- 
vidual Indian preachers have won hun- 
dreds and even thousands from Hinduism 
and Mohammedanism to Christianity. 

Reports made by the heads of the 
various educational institutions supported 
by the Church showed a wide range of 
work. Several industrial orphanages, a 
theological seminary, a college for women, 
8 113 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

and a college for men were included in the 
list. There is special need for educational 
work, because India has no compulsory 
education law and school facilities are slight 
indeed in comparison to those in Western 
countries. If the educational work of the 
mission schools is to be judged by its re- 
sults, its existence would seem to be abun- 
dantly justified. Even the objection that a 
large number of non-Christians should not 
be educated in Christian schools does not 
seem to be well founded. It is an easily 
observed fact that non-Christians who are 
educated in mission schools are rarely 
hostile to mission work. The years spent 
under Christian influence make them much 
less averse to placing their children under 
such influence, and it will be easier to reach 
succeeding generations. From the Isabella 
Thoburn College, the first college for women 
in India, go out well-trained women who 
fill a most important place as teachers, 
physicians, evangelists, or as the wives of 
such. Considering the centuries of illit- 
eracy of Indian women, one wonders at 
the mental aptitude of these young women. 
114 



NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE 

They take exactly the same examinations 
as do the men, and their average scholar- 
ship is higher than that of the men, although 
it is only fair to remark that the propor- 
tion of women who are educated is much 
less than that of the men. 

The ordination service was a most im- 
pressive one. After a sermon by Bishop 
McDowell on the text, ''Hast thou not 
known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me 
hath seen the Father," fourteen men were 
solemnly set apart to the ministry of the 
Word by the laying on of hands by Bishop 
Warne. Thirteen of the men were Indians 
and one was a young American missionary. 
Mrs. Parker, for fifty-one years a missionary 
in India, and actively at work with few 
signs of feebleness and none of childishness, 
cordially greeted the young men as they 
entered into the work in which she and 
her husband, Bishop Parker, were pioneers 
so many years ago. 

A memorial service was held for the 

members of the conference who had died 

since the last session. There were four such : 

three veteran missionaries — Mrs. Wilson, 

115 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

Dr. Waugh, and Dr. Humphrey; and the 
wife of an Indian minister, Mrs. Kidder. 
As those who had known the deceased told 
of their labors it was easy to realize the 
blessedness of a life of service. 

Still another impressive service was the 
laying of the corner stone of the Lilavati 
Singh Memorial Building of the Isabella 
Thoburn College. India has furnished to 
the world a number of Christian women 
of the noblest type, and among them is 
the late Lilavati Singh. A race that can 
produce such a woman is worth saving, and 
a religion that can produce such a woman 
can save a race. Isabella Thoburn lived in 
Lilavati Singh, and the building of which 
the corner stone was laid by Mrs. McDowell 
is dedicated to the high purpose of develop- 
ing other such lives. 

No one capable of expressing an opinion 
on the subject would declare that the 
Indian Christian Church has no faults and 
no crudities. On the other hand, no one 
who knows Indian heathenism and Indian 
Christianity would declare that India does 
not need Christianity. The problems that 
116 



NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE 

confront the Church are tremendous. They 
are not impossible of solution. No force in 
the world can exert so much of a leavening 
power as Christianity is exerting in India 
without having its critics — and its stanch 
supporters. American and European Chris- 
tians who have put their money into Chris- 
tian missions in India have no cause to 
regret their investment. If they could 
spend a day at an Indian conference they 
would go home with an inspiration for yet 
greater efforts. 



117 



THREE DAYS OF TRAVEL IN 
THE HIMALAYAS 

At fifteen minutes after nine o'clock on 
the night of the first of May, 1911, my 
wife, my colleague, Professor Henry, and 
myself left Lucknow, where we had been 
sweltering in a temperature of 109° F. in 
the shade and 157° F. in the sun's rays, 
for Almora, in the foothills of the Hima- 
layas. Our departure was picturesque, al- 
though it was typical of India. We rolled 
up to the station in two garis, not because 
there is not room in one gari for three 
persons nor yet because our homes were 
far apart, but because our baggage could 
not be accommodated upon and within 
one gari. My wife and I had two big 
rolls of bedding, two steel trunks, a tiffin 
(food) box, a bread box made of a Standard 
oil can, a paper bag containing two hats 
and a cap, two umbrellas, a handbag, a 
surahi^ full of water, and a second and 

* Stone water bottle. 

118 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

smaller tiffin box; while Professor Henry 
had ten different articles of baggage, in 
addition to such things as a camera, a 
canteen, and several stout sticks for moun- 
tain climbing, which he carried either slung 
over his shoulder or in his hands. A gari 
is a closed, two-seated vehicle, with the 
seats facing each other. It is built for 
four adults, but will accommodate more, 
if they are of good disposition. Its stout 
top will carry a large amount of luggage, 
but there is a limit. Two men accompany 
each gari. One drives while the other 
stands at the back of the vehicle and sees 
that none of the numerous articles of 
baggage roll off. He also assists in loading 
and unloading. We had come a distance 
of three miles in the gari, and the regular 
fare was twelve annas*, but when our 
baggage had been unloaded and I offered 
the driver his pay he insisted on receiving 
one rupee. I went to the ticket window, 
changed a rupee, and paid the twelve 



*Four pice=one anna. i6 annas=one rupee. In common calcula- 
tions one anna is considered to be equal to two American cents, and three 
rupees to one American dollar. 

119 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

annas, upon which the driver went off 
perfectly satisfied. 

Our tickets were bought for Kathgodam, 
the terminus of the railway on which it is 
situated, distant from Lucknow somewhat 
over two hundred miles, just where the 
foothills meet the plains. We paid nine 
rupees, nine annas each for second-class 
tickets. This is about one-half the cost 
of traveling first-class, and the accommo- 
dations are practically identical, first-class 
existing merely for social reasons. 

After buying our tickets three coolies 
carried our baggage to our compartment in 
the train, stopping on the way to weigh 
our trunks. The coolies were paid one 
anna each. Tiffin boxes and rolls of bedding 
are not weighed when the amount of excess 
baggage is determined, and as a perfectly 
obvious consequence they are conglomer- 
ates in structure. In our bedding rolls we 
had tennis racquets, hatchets, two rain 
coats, two steamer rugs, two sofa pillows, 
a soap box, some towels, and a number of 
minor articles of clothing. An analysis of a 
tiffin box would display an equal variety 
120 



'i »»'ftC 




RAILWAY STATION. 




AT 11:30 A. M. WE REACHED KATHGODAM. 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

of elements. Our trunks weighed two 
mounds, eight seers, and as we were allowed 
but thirty seers luggage each, we paid 
one rupee, eight annas excess. 

We had reserved berths, but the rail- 
way guard advised my wife to go into the 
compartment reserved for ladies only, be- 
cause otherwise she would be in a com- 
partment with five men ; but as our bedding 
was so packed that we needed to open but 
one roll for the night, and as our breakfast 
was all in one tiffin box, she decided to 
remain with me. It happened that we had 
a very good company. 

Tuesday, May 2, 1911. 

We got up at about seven o'clock, and 
as soon as we were washed and dressed we 
ate our breakfast from the tiffin box. Our 
first view of the snows of the Himalayas 
was from the train. Two or three peaks 
were visible, but they were too far away 
to be impressive. The scenes from the 
car windows were varied — threshers, ele- 
phants, camels, jackals, herons, deer, vil- 
lages, rice fields, ox carts — all were inter- 
123 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

esting to one who loves both persons and 
nature. 

At 11.30 A. M. we reached Kathgodam. 
Here several coolies carried all the baggage 
for the three of us to the scales in the 
freight shed for two annas. The next thing 
on the program was to get ready to go over- 
land to two miles beyond Almora, thirty- 
nine miles in all, and not a level mile on 
the route. A day's journey is called a 
march, although two or even more marches 
may be made in a day. The distance from 
Kathgodam to Almora is divided into four 
marches, as follows: Kathgodam to Bhim 
Tal, seven and three-fourth miles; Bhim 
Tal to Oak View Boarding House, eight 
and three-fourth miles ; Oak View Boarding 
House to Peora, ten and one-half miles; 
Peora to Almora, ten miles. 

Before proceeding further some terms 
should be defined. A dandi is a kind of 
chair and foot-rest, so mounted on a frame- 
work of wood and iron rods that it can be 
carried by one man when it is empty, and 
by four men at a time when it has a pas- 
senger. The dandi frame is boat-shaped, 
124 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

and is carried by attaching to each end 
pieces that look much Hke neck yokes. 
The ends of these pieces are then carried 
on the shoulders of four coolies. Unless a 
person is very heavy, six coolies is the 
usual number for each dandi. Eight are 
used for very heavy persons or very rough 
roads, and four are sometimes sufficient 
when the load is light. In either case four 
coolies are at work at any given time. A 
hojh is one pack coolie's burden. A regu- 
lation hojh is twenty-five seers (fifty 
pounds), but some coolies carry as much 
as one hundred and twenty pounds over 
the roughest of mountain roads and travel 
from eight to twenty miles per day. A dak 
hunalow is a hotel run by the government. 
Rates for meals and lodging are prescribed 
by law. 

Professor Titus, who was a colleague 
of mine, and his wife had arrived at Kath- 
godam a few hours before us. Our plan 
was for Mrs. Titus and my wife to ride in 
dandis, Professor Henry to ride a horse 
and make double marches to join his family 
at Almora, and Professor Titus and myself 
125 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

to take one horse between us and make 
single marches. When we arrived, the 
Tituses had gone to Bhim Tal, expecting 
us to join them there in the evening. 
Pertab Singh is the man who secures cooHes 
for people at Kathgodam. After our bag- 
gage was weighed we found that we would 
need nine hojh coolies, whereupon we asked 
to we furnished with nine hojh and six dandi 
coolies. We were told that no dandi coolies 
were to be had. Soon we met a woman in 
the waiting room who had met the Tituses. 
She said that they, too, had been unable to 
get dandi coolies, that they had made the 
first march with one horse, but that such a 
mode of traveling had not been satisfactory 
and they had decided to walk from the 
first dak bungalow at Bhim Tal. 

When we found that we could not get 
dandi coolies we decided to each take a 
horse to Bhim Tal. I had bought a dandi 
from Dr. Dease, who had sent it down 
from Naini Tal, so I gave a coolie four 
annas to carry the empty dandi to Bhim 
Tal, where I hoped to get dandi coolies. 
After waiting until 5.30 P. M., we found 
126 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

that It would be impossible to get to Bhim 
Tal that day, because we could not get 
hojh coolies enough to carry even our 
bedding and tiffin boxes. After quenching 
our thirst with bottled lemonade, at three 
annas per bottle, we paid four coolies one 
and one-half annas each to carry all our 
baggage up a steep hill to a hotel, where, 
after a good supper from our tiffin boxes, 
we went to bed and soon forgot the troubles 
of the day. 

While the travelers sleep, the hojh 
coolies, who are an important factor in 
Indian life, may be given a well-merited 
paragraph. These coolies are strong, ath- 
letic men whose homes are among the 
mountains, where most of them are small 
farmers. Their scarcity at this time of 
year is at least partially explained by the 
fact that it is harvest time and they need 
to work on their small farms. If the 
supply of coolies becomes very deficient 
the government drafts them into service. 
A hojh coolie's stock-in-trade consists of 
himself, a long rope, and a flat piece 
closely resembling a saddle girth, also a 
127 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

rather heavy piece of cloth. The rope is 
wound round the load, the girth-like piece 
is so adjusted as to bear the chief weight 
of the load upon the head or forehead, and 
the cloth is placed in such a position as to 
shield the head and shoulders. When the 
load is ready the coolie squats down with 
his back toward it, adjusts his harness, 
then slowly rises and is off. Rates of pay 
are prescribed and are about four annas 
(eight cents) per day. Two hojh coolies 
carried my two trunks, weighing one hun- 
dred and seventy-six pounds, over thirty- 
nine miles of very rugged mountain roads 
in three days. I paid nine rupees to get 
all of my baggage transferred from Kath- 
godam to Almora, a distance of thirty- 
seven miles. Some of the men have legs 
like Belgian horses. Many of them were 
cheerful, but it seemed significant that 
none of them were old. 

First Day, Wednesday, May 3, 1911. 

Early in the morning we were up and 
ready to begin the journey which had had 
so protracted a period of preparation. After 
128 




BOJH COOLIES. 




'THE PLOWMAN HOMEWARD PLODS HIS WEARY WAY." — Gray. 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

eating our breakfast, filling our surahi and 
canteen with boiled water for which we 
paid the khansaman (cook) one anna per 
bottle (for even Himalayan Mountain water 
may bring the dreaded fever or cholera 
if it is not boiled), rolling up our bedding, 
packing tiffin boxes, and sending off our 
hojh coolies with instructions to them to 
go to the Oak View Boarding House before 
night, and with strict instructions to the 
tiffin box coolie to be at Bhim Tal by noon, 
we were ready to select our horses. Two 
owners appeared before the door with 
three horses each. One of the owners had 
come to see us the night before and had 
insisted upon our giving him three rupees 
pay in advance before seeing his horses. 
Naturally we refused, but he now declared 
that we had engaged horses from him. We 
were placidly oblivious to his protests and 
selected three horses that we thought to 
be the least bad of the six before us. Not 
all of them belong to this ambitious, but 
somewhat unbusinesslike, owner. My wife 
selected a brown pony. He was warranted 
to be gentle, and he certainly possessed 
131 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

that quality. Professor Henry took a 
suspiciously sleek, white pony. It later 
developed that its sleekness was due to a 
temper that could not be ruffled by any 
number or variety of blows. After vain 
efforts to smite the beast under the fifth 
rib the rider concluded that that member 
must have been removed by a surgical 
operation. My own horse was a fair-sized, 
brown horse, with no distinctive charac- 
teristics except an insuperable aversion for 
violent exercise. Before the first march 
was over we gave names to our horses. 
My wife's was ''Meditation," Professor 
Henry's was ''Weary Willie," while mine 
was "The Orient," because it is impossible 
to hurry the East. One sais (groom) 
accompanied Professor Henry, who was to 
go to Almora on horseback, and one went 
to bring the other two horses back from 
Bhim Tal. I paid three rupees for my 
two horses and two annas to the sais. 

Our mountain climbing began imme- 
diately upon starting. The first two miles 
of our route lay along the road to Naini Tal, 
a favorite summer resort more easy of ac- 
132 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

cess than Almora. This was a wagon road, 
and it was crowded with tangas filled with 
people going for their summer's outing. A 
tanga is a two- wheeled, two-seated, covered 
vehicle, with the two seats back to back. 
It is much used in India. Many of our 
travelers were soldiers of the British army. 
Several of them had their wives and children 
with them. 

After two miles we turned to the right 
and crossed a suspension bridge that was 
just wide enough for one pack horse to 
pass through the entrance. From this 
time we saw no wheeled vehicle on our 
journey. A considerable number of mon- 
keys were playing about this bridge. They 
found several varieties of wild fruit here. 
Monkeys are especially fond of living in 
the vicinity of bridges. 

A long, steep zigzag began at the farther 
end of the bridge. As it wound back and 
forth on the face of the mountain, I thought 
of the geography pictures of traveling in 
the mountains. On this zigzag we met 
several hundred pack goats and sheep. 
Such use of these animals is common in 
133 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

the Himalayas. The animals eat very 
little and they are sure-footed. Their 
chief loads are salt and asafoetida. Goats 
seem to stand the arduous work well, but 
one feels that the sheep are cruelly over- 
loaded, and also that so weak and gentle 
an animal should not be put to such a use. 
A large flock of such pack animals can be 
driven by a very few men. Pack mules, 
ponies and horses, and hojh coolies were 
also met from time to time. 

Before the top of the zigzag was reached 
we passed a bush from which hung a great 
many bits of colored cloth. These had 
been tied here by coolies in order to win 
the favor of the gods. During our journey 
we had several reminders of the fact that 
we were in a non-Christian country. At 
several places on the road we saw dharm- 
shalas. These are simple stone buildings, 
built by wealthy Hindus to serve as free 
resting places for pilgrims to the famous 
Hindu shrine at Kedarnath and to various 
other shrines in that part of India. The 
buildings contain a number of cell-like 
rooms, absolutely unfurnished, but fur- 
134 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

nishing a shelter from heat, cold, and rain, 
snow, and wild animals. At one point at 
a considerable elevation and where water 
was difficult to obtain, a man furnished 
water free to travelers. This would give 
him merit with the gods. The huts of 
"holy men" were seen in at least two 
places by the roadside. These ''holy men" 
live in the rudest of shelters, are almost 
unclad, cover themselves with ashes, and 
seek by penance to find peace. They are 
picturesque and pathetic. As their number 
is some millions, and as they do not work, 
they are a serious drain upon the resources 
of India. 

The Himalayan oak resembles the Amer- 
ican white oak in its fruit, although its 
leaves are of a silvery color on the under 
side. Cacti grow to a gigantic size here, 
and some of them have beautiful blossoms. 

Nearing Bhim Tal we began to descend, 
but the descent was but slight in com- 
parison with the ascent we had made. 
Bhim Tal was a small lake, partly artificial. 
A huge dam confined it at its lower end, and 
the top of the dam served as a roadway. 
135 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

Both this dam and the roadway from 
Kathgodam bore evidence of the abiHty 
of the English as builders. The huge spill- 
ways and the massive walls of the dam 
seemed built for eternity. On the roadway 
stone parapets were built where the path 
skirted a precipice, and where there was 
danger of landslides heavy walls of masonry, 
sometimes several in succession, had been 
built to prevent them. 

We reached the dak bungalow at Bhim 
Tal at 9.45 a. m., having left Kathgodam 
at about six o'clock. The khansaman gave 
us a note from Mrs. Titus saying that, as 
they supposed that we had had trouble 
in getting coolies, they had gone on in 
order to avoid dak bungalow hire and we 
could join them at Oak View Boarding 
House. Dak bungalow rates are one rupee, 
eight annas for a man and his wife for a 
room for twenty-four hours, or eight annas 
for each individual for a stay of not more 
than three hours. We decided to rest for 
three hours, and then to move on. I made 
another ineffectual attempt to secure dandi 
coolies. As my wife was tired by riding, 
136 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

to which she was entirely unaccustomed, we 
decided to send back our horses and pro- 
ceed on foot. Moreover, my wife had been 
compelled to ride astride, with undivided 
skirts, on a man's saddle, and this did not 
add to the attractiveness of this means of 
progression. My empty dandi had arrived. 
I could neither get the coolie who had 
brought it from Kathgodam to take it to 
Almora nor could I get another coolie, so 
I left it in care of the khansaman. 

As we rested at the dak bungalow, 
Professor Henry and I sat on the bank of 
the lake overlooking the road over which 
we had passed and watched for the appear- 
ance of the coolie with our tiffin box. We 
watched and watched and watched, but in 
vain. Finally, when all hope of his arriv- 
ing in time for us to eat before our three 
hours of rest were over was gone, we or- 
dered breakfast from the khansaman. We 
got a good hot breakfast for one rupee, two 
annas each. After breakfast we paid eight 
annas each for dak bungalow rent, gave two 
annas to the khansaman for looking after 
our dandi, gave the sweeper one pice (one- 
137 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

half a cent), and set out for Oak View 
Boarding House, where we hoped to meet 
the Tituses and our hojh cooHes. 

Soon after leaving Bhim Tal we skirted 
an unusually broad valley with wide ter- 
races; that is, broad in comparison with 
other valleys of this region where bottom 
land is almost unknown, the mountains 
coming together in such a way as to form 
V-shaped valleys. A considerable number 
of Boer prisoners were confined in this 
valley during the South African War. One 
of their pastimes was the making of sticks 
for mountain climbers. The need for 
guards for the prisoners must have been 
reduced to a minimum. 

As we climbed the long hill to Ramgarh 
Pass we got our first view of the long-tailed, 
large gray monkeys that are common in 
this part of the Himalayas. Some of the 
jokes played by them are amusing. A 
favorite one during the rainy season is to 
shake the trees above the heads of trav- 
elers, deluging them with water. For 
mid-air acrobatics these monkeys are ex- 
perts. They jump from tree to tree on the 
138 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

mountain side in a way that for rapidity, 
distance, and precision is truly astonishing. 

Ramgarh Pass is some seven thousand 
five hundred feet high, and from it we 
should have been able to get a good view 
of the plains on one side and the snow on 
the other, had not a haze prevented our 
doing so. From the pass we had a descent 
until we reached the Oak View Boarding 
House. The distance was about a mile 
and a half, and this was one of the most 
beautiful parts of our journey. We saw 
here the largest rhododendrons that we 
observed between Kathgodam and Almora. 
The largest were eighteen inches in diam- 
eter. I have since seen several that are 
more than three feet in diameter, these 
being on the road from Almora to Binsar. 

It was almost dark when we arrived at 
the boarding house and joined our friends. 
Our coolies had not yet arrived, but for- 
tunately for us the resources of the Titus 
tiffin box had not been exhausted, and so 
we fared sumptuously. One's appetite, 
which has been somewhat quiescent on the 
hot plains, revives immediately upon reach- 
139 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

ing the mountains and we found ourselves 
ravenously hungry. Soon after we had 
eaten, our coolies began to arrive, having 
come sixteen and one-half miles over the 
steep mountain roads in one day. When 
I consider what they eat and how they 
live, their strength and endurance is a 
marvel to me. They sleep almost any- 
where, and often with almost no covering 
except their clothing, which is often scanty, 
indeed; while many an entire meal con- 
sists of chapaties — a kind of thin flour cake. 

The Oak View Boarding House is a 
private establishment run in competition 
with the Ramgarh dak bungalow. Its rates 
are lower. For my wife and myself I paid 
eight annas for a room, three annas for 
the use of a lamp, two annas for hot water, 
and five annas for the services of a table 
servant, who also acted as a man of all 
work. 

Our first day of travel left us tired, but 
we had enjoyed the novelty and the beauty 
of our surroundings, and we went to bed 
in glad anticipation of what the morrow 
would bring to us. 

140 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

Second Day, Thursday, May 4, 1911. 

The haze that had prevailed the day 
before had disappeared in the night, and 
upon going out on the terraces surrounding 
the house in which we had staid over night 
we had a good view of the snows; but as 
we had a better one before the day closed 
I will not describe the scene now. 

This day the first part of our journey 
was down a descent so steep that Professor 
Henry walked while the groom led his horse. 
At the foot of the hill our equestrian bade 
us good-bye and rode on to make two 
marches and join his family at our destina- 
tion. He had been a most congenial com- 
panion and a competent guide, having 
been over the route twelve times before. 

Soon after leaving the foot of the hill 
we came to a place where rice was being 
irrigated. The crop is not an unusual one 
in this region. A dharmshala was situated 
on the level space between the foot of the 
mountain which we had just descended 
and the one that we were soon to ascend, 
and not far from it was a ''holy man" 
141 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

under his wretched shelter. One wondered 
if his dirt was next to godhness. Our 
second suspension bridge was now passed. 
In the water below a great many good- 
sized fish were seen, but an Indian urchin 
who was probably excellent authority, told 
us that they hid under the rocks when one 
attempted to catch them. Near the bridge 
was a rather extensive ruin of what had 
been a spacious stone building. We asked 
an Indian who lived near by what the 
building had been. He said that it had 
been an iron smelter. He showed us a 
number of rocks from the stone wall near 
his house that were heavy with iron. The 
smelting had probably been abandoned 
either because of the difficulty of trans- 
portation or because of the scarcity of fuel. 
From near this ruin we commenced a 
climb of several miles to another pass. At 
one point we looked back and discovered 
a village perched upon the mountain side 
below us. We had passed below it, its 
only connection with the outside world 
being by means of a footpath leading to 
the road. At the same time, looking far 
142 




plowing a terraced mountain side, 
(spare ribs are typical.) 



^^M 




harrowing a terrace, 
(stone house roof in background.) 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

below the road to the mountain stream 
below, we saw an Indian water mill. Sev- 
eral such mills were seen during our trip. 
They are exceedingly simple and are used 
for grinding wheat. Simple as they are 
they must be a great improvement over 
the common hand mills. The situation of 
the mills was picturesque, but many a 
mountain farmer must find going to mill a 
most arduous task. 

In sight of our first mill we stopped in a 
little shady spot by the roadside for break- 
fast. We had taken the precaution to keep 
our tiffin box coolie near us. He was a 
Hindu, and as such would not be expected 
to eat with Christians, Mohammedans, or 
Hindus of a lower caste, but we concluded 
to offer him an onion and he took it quite 
willingly. It was probably orthodox for 
him to do so, because it is cooked food 
that is chiefly to be avoided. One who has 
Hindu servants usually finds that some 
kinds of food need to be kept under lock 
and key. 

The only cuts in the rocks, where rock 
walls rose on both sides of the path, were 
10 145 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

passed soon after breakfast. Near them 
we stopped in the shade of some hawthorns 
in full bloom to rest. As we were making 
but one march on this day we were in no 
hurry and could afford to take time to 
enjoy our surroundings. The hawthorn 
was not the most conspicuous member of 
the flora seen on this day. Leaving its 
shelter we crossed the pass and began 
the descent to Peora, and here we saw for 
the first time splendid representatives of 
the wild roses for which the Himalayas 
should be famous. The bushes are gigantic. 
I saw one bush that was not less than six 
inches in diameter and many plants are 
from twenty-five to thirty feet in height. 
Among so many beautiful specimens as we 
saw it seems invidious to select one as 
being more nearly perfect than another, but 
if I were to do so I should say that the 
finest one we observed almost completely 
covered a very symmetrical tree nearly 
thirty feet in height. The flowers are in 
very large clusters, pure white, and profuse 
in the extreme. 

To pass abruptly from the beautiful to 
146 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

a very different subject will be typical of 
the order in which things are actually seen 
when on a journey. We were interested in 
watching the workmen on the roads use 
their shovels. Each shovel was operated 
by two men. One held the handle and 
guided and unloaded the shovel, while the 
other manipulated a rope which was fas- 
tened to the handle of the shovel near the 
bottom. The latter man furnished most 
of the power for filling the shovel. 

We reached the dak bungalow at Peora 
at about two o'clock in the afternoon. Our 
coolie had orders to be there at two-thirty, 
but he actually arrived some two hours 
later. Although very hungry we were 
ready to enjoy the view of the snows that 
we had from the veranda. This was the 
best view we had during our three days' 
travel. The sight was one never to be for- 
gotten. The tremendous magnitude, the 
shining whiteness, the marvelous lights and 
shadows, the clusters of gigantic peaks, the 
varied forms displayed, the solitary majesty 
of some isolated peaks, the knowledge that, 
except for a slight break made by the 
147 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

Binsar Ridge, we were gazing on the 
greatest expanse of snow peaks to be seen 
at one view in the world — all these were 
elements of a spectacle that must deeply 
move any one who loves the sublime and 
majestic in nature. Nanda Devi, with its 
more than 25,000 feet, was not conspic- 
uously higher than a considerable number 
of other peaks. Up, up, up went the heights 
until it seemed that the very heavens 
must be reached. We drank in the in- 
spiration at our leisure, feeling that it was 
worth coming half way around the world 
to see such a panorama. Professor Titus 
and I climbed the hills to get a broader 
view, and as the vision faded away as 
darkness came on I instinctively thought of 
Him of whom it is written, ''The strength 
of the hills is His also," and I felt then, as 
I have felt many times, that His is the 
only strength that can lift the awful load 
that makes India suffer and lament in spite 
of her millions of gods 



148 




HINDU TEMPLE, NEAR ALMORA. 




SUSPENSION BRIDGE. 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

Third Day, Friday, May 5, 1911. 

Early in the morning we started out on 
our last march of twelve miles. Our start 
was so early that we had our lanterns 
lighted. Man-eating leopards are not so 
rare that one wishes to travel in the dark- 
ness, even if the road can be found. Our 
way for almost five miles was a descent. 
Overhead monkeys jumped from bough to 
bough and from tree to tree. At one point 
we saw a large group of monkeys, several 
of which had young ones. The perfect 
abandon with which a mother scurried over 
the ground and over the trees with a young 
one clinging tightly to her was astonish- 
ing. 

As day dawned we found ourselves in a 
region more closely resembling the Rocky 
Mountains than any we had before seen 
here. On one side was a rocky gorge, and 
on the other were great boulders inter- 
spersed with pines. More and more rugged 
grew the scene until the culmination was 
reached at the foot of the long descent where 
a lofty suspension bridge spanned a narrow 
151 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

canyon, while two deep, rocky gorges 
united just above the bridge. The scene was 
wild, massive, rugged. 

Climbing was almost constant from the 
bridge to Almora. A large flock of pack 
goats and sheep was waiting to cross the 
bridge, a group of pack horses and ponies 
having precedence. One of the drivers had 
in his arms a lamb that must otherwise 
have been unable to make the journey. 
On our way up the hill we met some 
twenty pack horses with great loads of 
hides, being taken to the tanneries on the 
plains. Hides are a leading product of this 
part of the country. 

As breakfast time drew near we met a 
man carrying a large basket of very fine 
onions on his head. We bought two pice 
worth (one American cent) from him. 
Surprised at the quantity that we received 
we counted them and found that we had 
twenty-two. Their flavor was excellent, 
much better than that of the onions in the 
Lucknow market. At 9 : 30 we selected a 
shady spot and halted for breakfast, our 
coolie being on time for once. 
152 




A CENTURY PLANT. ALMORA. 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

A Mohammedan cemetery is on the 
hillside near the road not far from Almora. 
Mohammedans bury, while Indians burn, 
their dead. Hindus do not keep the ashes 
of their dead and hence have no occasion 
for cemeteries. 

We also passed a leper asylum. Lep- 
rosy is prevalent in India. Many beggars 
will show their leprous fingers as they beg. 
Many have no finger tips left. There are 
two kinds of leprosy. One makes the en- 
tire body as white as snow. The other 
shows only in certain spots or certain por- 
tions of the body. 

A soldiers' camp with Its multitude of 
white tents crowned the top of a hill near 
the city. It is customary to send different 
troops here in different summers so as to 
give to as many as possible the benefit of a 
change of climate. The life of soldiers in 
India Is a trying one, and their poor, pale 
wives must suffer terribly from heat and 
homesickness. 

Terraced farms were seen on the moun- 
tain sides at almost every stage of our 
three days of travel. I was strongly 
155 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

reminded of the terraced farms of Japan. 
The Himalayan farms are more varied, 
however. They are irregular in shape and 
reminded me of the fancy crackers some- 
times made for children. Terraces were all 
widths from a few feet to a few rods, al- 
though the average width would not be 
more than a few feet. Some single moun- 
tain slopes had as many as five hundred 
terraces. The chief crop, at least at this 
time of year, is wheat, and as it was harvest 
time we saw women reaping the grain. 
The grain was put on the stone roofs of the 
houses to dry before being threshed. Some 
terraces had rice growing, and some had 
Irish potatoes, and such fruit trees as are 
found in America — apples, pears, peaches, 
plums, apricots — but orchards were rare. 
These farms added a human touch to the 
landscape. Houses were also of a dis- 
tinctive type. Even the poorest mountain 
peasant will be found living in a stone 
house with a stone roof. That is the 
cheapest kind of a house where stones are 
more abundant than soil. In the plains a 
mud house is the cheapest possible. A 
156 



TRAVEL IN THE HIMALAYAS 

stone house has, by far, the more pros- 
perous look. 

The commissioner, a British officer of 
considerable dignity, passed us on his way 
to Almora. There was absolutely nothing 
to mark his rank except the uniforms of 
his dandi coolies. Mountain paths really 
offer rather circumscribed facilities for os- 
tentation. Of course this man may have 
wished to be plain, but it occurred to me 
to wonder just how a traveler in these 
regions would be otherwise. 

Several of the hills around Almora are 
treeless. They are said to have been cleared 
by the Gurkhas as a military measure 
when they conquered the country. The 
British Government is now systematically 
reforesting. The forestry department is 
well organized and is giving to India one 
of the many good things that she had 
never given herself under Indian rule. 

We passed through the business section 
of Almora, but we did not loiter as we were 
anxious to reach our destination, two miles 
further on. As we climbed the hill from 
Almora to Epworth we met a number of 
159 



FIRST DAYS IN INDIA 

women with immense loads of earthen 
pots on their heads. The pots were water 
jars and were being carried to market. 

Professor Henry had sent a servant to 
Almora to meet us, and had invited us to 
take tiffin and dinner with him and his 
family. We were glad to accept the in- 
vitation, and if a housewife is flattered 
when her guests eat a hearty meal, Mrs. 
Henry must have been very much flattered 
on this day. 



160 



SEP 28 1912 






SSEO 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




010 458 167 5 



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